School chief needs second doctorate

JARRELL, Texas, May 21 (UPI) -- A Texas school superintendent will earn a new doctorate after questions arose about the Ph.D. she received from a non-accredited foreign university.

Jamie Mattison of the Jarrell School District north of Austin, Texas, says she will attend Mary Hardin-Baylor University to earn a new doctorate in educational administration, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.

Mattison came under criticism after it was learned she received her doctorate by taking computer classes from Berne University located on the Caribbean Island of St. Kitts. The school lost its accreditation two years ago.

"I spent a year and a half working on the computer and hardly saw my family," Mattison said as she displayed the 197-page dissertation she wrote.

Questions about her doctorate were raised in a series of anonymous complaints brought to the attention of the school board, former board President Nick Sikes told the American-Statesman.

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