By H. Jay Eshelman

The Vermont Daily Chronicle (VDC) is fast becoming one of the new faces of American education. Think about it. Each author of an article, and each commenter, provide perspectives based on this proposed VDCU mission statement: “Beginning in the [digital] classroom with exposure to new ideas, new ways of understanding, and new ways of knowing, students [authors and commentators] embark on a journey of intellectual transformation.”

We are all teachers and students simultaneously. Lifelong learners in the most technical sense.

Do we ‘graduate’ from the VDCU? No. Not ever. Because the VDCU doesn’t bestow credentials on anyone, it’s free from the regulation and performance standards imposed by special interest groups.

Are subjects taught and learned at the VDCU a valuable commodity, as are degrees in various fields of study bestowed on professors and students at ‘authorized’ (i.e., accredited) institutes of higher learning?

After all, in the first place, who are the accrediting agencies?

Well, there are the ‘accredited’ institutions themselves… mutual admiration societies. For example, the “National Commission on Accreditation, founded in 1949 as the first national organization to develop criteria and recognize accrediting agencies; and the Federation of Regional Accrediting Commission of Higher Education, merged into the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA), which was established in 1974 and existed until December 1993.”

Then, “after COPA voted to dissolve in December 1993, a new entity, the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation (CORPA) was established in January 1994 to continue the recognition of accrediting agencies previously carried out by COPA until such time as a new national organization for accreditation could be established. CORPA was dissolved in April 1997 after the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) was created. CHEA is currently the entity that carries out a recognition function in the private, nongovernmental sector.” –

We also have the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), and Higher Education Act signed into law in 1965, as well as educational policies set forth by Congress. The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V) was signed into law by President Trump on July 31, 2018.

And so it goes. Every time an accreditation standard becomes generic, a new and more complicated regulation is devised by special interest groups to keep these new digital upstarts from gaining traction.

Is the VDCU an accredited institution? Certainly not. But that doesn’t mean that what is learned on this forum is any less relevant to achieving the above referenced mission statement … for an infinite variety of reasons.

Are there other digital institutes of higher learning out there? You bet. Digital education is becoming more ubiquitous than traditional accredited educational institutions can possibly keep pace with. So, as with Vermont’s public-school monopoly, we should be prepared for more and more resistance to our new-found educational liberty and freedom.

Postscript: Would anyone trust a credential bestowed by the VDCU to be a license to practice a specific discipline?

In fairness, to answer that question, would anyone trust a credential bestowed by any ‘accredited’ learning institution? 

While these traditional accredited institutions would like us to believe this is the case, the answer is, today, in doubt. While the degrees bestowed by accredited institutions are often prerequisite for professional consideration, they are, in many cases, not absolute. College degrees are no longer required by many of the leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.

Yes. There are hundreds of exams, apprenticeships, internships and residencies, required in order to be a licensed practitioner in virtually every discipline. But high school and college degrees are losing their significance because of the continued poor performance of their products… i.e., their graduates.

So – I welcome you to the Vermont Daily Chronicle University, and its affiliated digital institutions around the world. May you all make the best of it. ‘Live long and prosper’.

BTW: The above referenced VDCU ‘mission statement’ was cut and pasted from the Harvard College website. 

The author is a frequent VDC commenter and resident of Windham County. His commentary was not solicited by VDC.