Does it really matter whether doctors, nurses and engineers have legitimate degrees?

Of course it does. And it’s in the public’s best interest to know when people holding responsible jobs bought their “degrees” from an online diploma mill instead of attending college, taking classes and passing exams.

But even though the U.S. Department of Justice knows the identities of more than 10,000 people who bought fake degrees from a single Spokane-based diploma mill, it won’t give out that information. The U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, James A. McDevitt, says releasing the names of the people who bought phony degrees is contrary to Department of Justice policy.

Then the policy is wrong and needs to be changed. The only party that benefits from the policy is the customer with a fake degree. The public and employers are losers.

The owner of the mill – which made millions as part of an Internet scheme – was sentenced last week to three years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Several employees received lesser sentences.

The mill sold fake degrees in nursing, medicine engineering, counseling and other fields from phony institutions such as St. Regis University and James Monroe University. It also sold counterfeit diplomas from legitimate universities, including Texas A&M, the University of Tennessee and George Washington University. It didn’t matter if employers tried to check out the diplomas; the mill’s owner had a separate operation to handle verification calls.

It’s easy to see how the public’s safety is put at risk by allowing people with fake degrees to continue in such jobs as nurses, doctors and engineers. But there are also financial considerations. Employers often pay higher salaries, give promotions and provide more lucrative retirement benefits based on workers’ educational levels. And many of the phony degrees went to people in public sector jobs, such as schoolteachers and firefighters – so taxpayers foot the bill for the fraud.

At least one of the diploma mill’s customers worked in the White House, and dozens of others worked for the Department of Defense. A fake degree even allowed an Army enlisted man to become an officer.

Disclosing the names of those who bought fake degrees – and the resulting publicity – could serve an important deterrent effect. But failure to disclose the names allows the customers to continue defrauding their employers and makes the government an accessory to that fraud.

Most seriously, it puts the public’s health and safety at risk.

On the Web How can you tell if a school is actually a diploma mill? Go to the Inside the Editorial Page blog: blogs@thenewstribune.com/oped.