Kentucky: Explosive New Robert Felner Scandal Brewing

by E Wayne Ross on September 8, 2008

PageOneKentucky.com: Explosive New Robert Felner Scandal Brewing

WHAS11’s Adam Walser has uncovered a story that many commenters on this site have been stewing about over the past several days.

What’s the skinny? Well… turns out someone tightly connected to Robert Felner received a doctoral degree from the University of Louisville without really stepping foot on campus, while holding down a job as a school superintendent in California… in just four months. Yeah, it’s that scandalous.

John Deasy is the guy in question. One of the individuals he thanks for his rapid rise to power is none other than Robert Felner, who was the chair of his doctoral dissertation committee in 2004. But it gets better.

* He lists the University of New York as a school he attended– but that university doesn’t exist.
* UofL requires 60 hours of credits toward doctoral research. He had a whopping 9.
* The title page of Deasy’s dissertation lists the date of May 2003– seven months before enrolling at UofL.
* During the time he was enrolled at UofL he never missed a bi-monthly school board meeting– in California.
* Deasy was at the University of Rhode Island for five years as a student but for some reason doesn’t list those classes on his resume. Not surprisingly, the Dean at the College of Education there was none other than Robert Felner.
* And Deasy’s school district hired Felner’s National Center on Public Education for a study that cost about $120,000 in 2003.