I love this story, and salute Tim Levier for bringing it to my attention. As Tim suggested, it’s got everything. Dishonesty, incompetence, a window on the utter ineptitude of our educational system, the arrogance of unqualified officials believing that they can lie their way to power while having complete contempt for the public…and more, including a journalist actually doing his job and vetting the legitimacy of a Democrat!  A black Democrat, even!

Behold and prepare to be amazed…

Aurora School Board member and Democrat Eric Nelson is running for State Representative in Aurora’s District 42. Unfortunately for him,  a Denver7 reporter decided to check on his claimed credentials, and the hilarious result has his embarrassed party calling on Nelson to stop running for office,  and urging voter to support his opponent.

Nelson’s campaign website and his Aurora School Board biography states that he earned “a Master of Social Work from Northwest Nazarene University.” So Denver7 contacted the school, which said it had no record of Nelson attending. Nelson responded by sending what he said was a copy of his diploma via text message to two local newspapers, The Aurora Sentinel and The Colorado Statesman.

Denver7 Reporter Marshall Zelinger decided to examine the document (above) , and found several, er, problems:

1. The wording on the school crest at the bottom middle is misspelled. It says “Notthwest.”
2. The school doesn’t offer the degree on the document. It offers a “Master of Social Work” but not a “Master of Science.”
3. The actual social work degree was instituted in 2002, but the diploma is dated 1999.
4. There is no Magna Cum Laude designation for graduate students
5. The diploma references “Glassboro College” in “Glassboro, New Jersey.” Glassboro College’s name was changed to Rowan College of New Jersey in 1992.
6. Nelson was only 20 years old in May of 1999.

Other than that, the diploma seems genuine.

But wait! There’s more!

Nelson sent Zelinger two emails as proof that he taught  at University of Colorado Denver.  The University has no record of him ever teaching there, contrary to  claims in Nelson’s bio for Aurora School Board and his campaign site for State Representative.

In summary, then: Here is an example of the kind of whizzes who can be engaged in making educational policy for our schools, thanks to miserable vetting and poor self-policing by state authorities as well as political parties. How many other officials across the nation at all levels of municipal government have similarly inflated credentials? Do you dare to guess?

A final question: How many candidates are as pathetically inept at faking their credentials as Eric Nelson? (I especially like misspelling the school crest; that’s like a counterfeiter putting Moe Howard  on the hundred dollar bill.) And if the answer is “not many,” is that a good thing, or bad?