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The school that issued Blount County Circuit Court Clerk Tom Hatcher a bachelor's degree and master's degree in 2005 was shut down in Louisiana after CBS News did an expose on "diploma mills."

CBS News reported in May 2004 that federal government employees had obtained fake diplomas from online colleges and universities that required little or no academic course work from students. 

Because the federal government offered tuition reimbursement, taxpayers ultimately paid for the suspect degrees. 

Blount County paid $3,910 to Columbus University for Hatcher's Bachelor of Science in criminal justice management and a master's degree on Jan. 14, 2005.

Hatcher said Tuesday he has not completed the master's program yet, but the $3,910 check issued by Blount County covered both a bachelor's degree and master's degree. 

Hatcher did not know when he would complete the master's degree program.

According to Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, Hatcher did not violate any policy or procedure because Hatcher is an elected official who controlled his own departmental budget.

"What he did was within the parameters of what is allowed by the statutory operation of his office," Cunningham said.

"The county has no control over how the elected officials spend the money appropriated to their budgets."

One of the colleges CBS reported on was Columbus University, which operated out of Louisiana at the time of the report.

Shortly after the CBS exposé aired, the state of Louisiana shut down Columbus University and the federal government revised its tuition reimbursement policy to exclude programs and schools that are not accredited.

A few months later, Columbus University reopened in Picayune, Miss., where it still operates today. Many online universities and colleges operate out of Mississippi where there are few regulations pertaining to accreditation.

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood decided to crack down on diploma mills early this year and created a four-member commission to regulate schools in his state and "identify nonapproved entities."

Hood's office provided a list of "nonapproved schools" operating in Mississippi that included Columbus University and 10 others.

Hood said the problem with diploma mills is that they dupe people into spending thousands of dollars on worthless degrees. In some cases, the bogus degrees have helped people get jobs for which they are unqualified.

County Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves said, "There are a number of areas where Blount County would benefit by us taking a look at our policies and procedures — and tuition reimbursement is one of those areas."

When asked if the county would expect Hatcher to repay the money for his Columbus University tuition, Cunningham said, "Whatever happens in that department flows from Hatcher — that's a decision he'll have to make."

The diploma mill business is a nationwide problem. It has been reported that more than 200 diploma mills operate in the United States or foreign countries and take in at least $200 million a year from selling bogus degrees.

The U.S. Department of Education and Council on Higher Education Accreditation maintain master lists of more than 7,000 academic institutions that have proper accreditation.