Run Tona, Run

Naturopathic legislative news from across the nation (The Daily Times, Maryville, TN) :

Candidate promoting questionable college degree

By Joel Davis
of The Daily Times Staff

Tona Monroe-Ball, District 20 House of Representatives candidate, has been promoting herself as a doctor of naturopathic medicine. Evidence seems to suggest otherwise.

In recent weeks, Monroe-Ball has lobbied The Daily Times staff to describe her as a doctor during election coverage and has been addressed as such at recent candidate forums. Her candidate and business Web sites both describe her as a "naturopathic doctor."

Although state law does not prohibit anyone from simply calling themselves a doctor, even without being licensed, it does prohibit the practice of naturopathy, a philosophy of health that embraces alternative treatments, such as acupuncture and herbalism, used outside of normal medical care.

Tennessee Code Annotated 63-6-205 defines naturopathy as "the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human injuries, ailments and disease by the use of such physical forces, as air, light, water, vibration, heat, electricity, hydrotherapy, psychotherapy, dietetics or massage, and the administration of botanical and biological drugs."

Because of this prohibition, Monroe-Ball, who has not claimed to be a practitioner, has been relying on a degree, received in 2005, from Central States College of Health Sciences in Columbus, Ohio, to confirm her status. Closer investigation, however, raises questions about the legitimacy of the degree.

John Ware, executive director of the Ohio Board of Career Colleges and Schools, said the school did not have state authorization to issue degrees.

"They're not approved by this board," Ware said. "They're not approved by the Ohio Board of Regents. There was a lawsuit a couple years ago with this school and the Ohio Board of Regents about whether they should be offering degrees. My understanding is they weren't supposed to be."

When he founded CSCHS in 1994, Robert McKinney, the president of the school, resurrected a lapsed corporate charter that dated back to 1939. Attorneys for McKinney later argued in court that this exempted the school from needing certification because the college had technically been in existence prior to the effective date of the applicable state regulations, according to court records.

Court ruling

In 2005, a Franklin County, Ohio, court ruled that CSCHS was not authorized to issue degrees. This ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals of Ohio in 2007. According to Karen Doty, general counsel for the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear a further appeal.

"The Supreme Court declined to hear the case last March," Doty said. "We haven't heard from (CSCHS) since then."

Without authorization from the Board of Regents, degrees granted by CHCHS are not legally recognized in Ohio. Classes taken at the college would not even be transferable to other schools in Ohio.

"If we did not authorize it, then we would not recognize the degree," Doty said.

Whether CSCHS is still in operation is an open question. The college's Web site has not been updated since 2004. The phone number listed on the site is no longer in service.

CSCHS also never received accreditation from any agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. According to the department Web site, "accreditation is the process used in U.S. education to ensure that schools, postsecondary institutions, and other education providers meet and maintain, minimum standards of quality and integrity regarding academics, administration, and related services. It is a voluntary process based on the principle of academic self-governance. Both institutions and programs (faculties) within institutions participate in accreditation."

Monroe-Ball responds

In an e-mail to The Daily Times, Monroe-Ball argued that accreditation has nothing to do with the quality of education she received.

"All the recognition by the U.S. Department of Education does it qualify students for federal loan money," she wrote. "It means nothing in terms of educational standards. Thus, you've choose (sic) to set the basis of recognizing degrees around the ability of a school's students to received (sic) gov't money to go to school."

"... If you could give me a rational reason as to why the U.S. Department of Education is the gold standard for recognition, I am willing to listen. But instead you've choose (sic) to ignore the facts and fall in line with the 10th plank of the Communist Manifesto."

For reference's sake, in the 1888 Samuel Moore translation of the Communist Manifesto, the 10th point alluded to by Monroe-Ball reads: "Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc."

Quality control process

The U.S. Department of Education recognizes only one accrediting agency for naturopathic schools, the Massachusetts-based Council on Naturopathic Medical Education. During a telephone interview, the council's executive director, Daniel Seitz, called accreditation a quality control process.

"The federal government wants to make sure that educational programs that may be funded through federal taxpayer dollars are legitimate programs," Seitz said. "That is the primary consideration."

Further, Seitz said that accreditation does matter if a naturopath hopes to become a licensed practitioner. The 14 states that license naturopaths require a degree from an accredited institution.

"I can't comment on the quality of her training, but, by the virtue of attending an unaccredited institution, she would not be eligible to be licensed as a naturopath in the United States," he said.

Another accreditation

Monroe-Ball did provide a copy of a certificate of accreditation for CSCHS from the "World Organization of Natural Medicine Practitioners." That agency is not listed as a recognized accrediting agency by the U.S. Department of Education. According to its Web site, the WONP purports to fall under the auspices of The Medical Order of the Knights Hospitalers, an organization that claims a thousand-year lineage from a historical order of knighthood; however, the current incarnation organization apparently only dates back to 2007.

Seitz said he had never heard of the WNMOP.

"Anyone can set up an organization that purports to be an accrediting agency," he said. "You have to dig a little deeper to see if it's a meaningful process."

Within hours of an e-mail exchange between The Daily Times staff and Monroe-Ball about the lack of accreditation, Chris Fortner, an area blogger who supports Monroe-Ball, contacted the newspaper vie e-mail. In reference to Monroe-Ball, he appeared to argue against medical licensing.

"Why should medicine be licensed other than to run a racket by those who operate it?" Fortner wrote. "The license, born in the late 19th Century, is nothing more than a shell game, designed to raise the incomes for the people already in these fields. In return for their serving as apologists for the new statism, the state was prepared to offer not only cartelized occupations, but also ever-increasing and cushier jobs in the bureaucracy to plan and propagandize for the newly statized society."

Monroe-Ball lives in Greenback. She runs a Web business selling natural medicine products. According to the site, she moved to Tennessee in 2003. She is seeking the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives seat being vacated by state Rep. Doug Overbey.

Originally published: July 07. 2008 3:01AM
Last modified: July 06. 2008 11:11PM