USA Today looked into the claims of congressional members to see if Rep. George Santos was the only one who has embellished his resume What it found out was that Rep. Mary Peltola also has stretched her educational credentials, when she reported she had four years of college, when her alma mater can only account for two.
“One of the discrepancies was Rep. Mary Sattler Peltola, D-Alaska, whose congressional biography states she attended the University of Northern Colorado from 1991 to 1994. The university confirmed her attendance, but only from 1991 to spring 1993. And it added in an email, “’our records reflect that no entity has requested this information except for you, today.'”
That’s an educational embellishment of at least 25% or even 50%. If she started in the fall of 1991 and left in the spring of 1993, it’s really just a two-year attendance. Peltola’s office did not respond to requests for comment, USA Today wrote.
When she was in the Alaska House, Peltola’s official education biography was more expansive on the Legislature’s website, as published in in 2008, but she still said she attended University of Northern Colorado for from 1991-94:
Education:
University of Northern Colorado, 1991-94
University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1994-95
University of Alaska Southeast, 1995-97
University of Alaska Anchorage, 1997-98
Rep. Santos, a Republican from Long Island, NY, claimed to have degrees from Baruch College and New York University, neither of which have a record of Santos earning any degree – a fact only publicized after he was elected in November, the newspaper reported.
The reporter checked 93 freshmen elected in 2022, and all of their credentials held up to scrutiny, except for those of Santos, Peltola, and Troy Carter of Louisiana. Educational background checks for 91 out of 93 freshman members held up, in most cases for all of their cited degrees. About a dozen universities did not respond and the two discrepancies that emerged both were minor compared to Santos’ embellishment.
“Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, stated on his congressional website that he earned a Master of Business Administration from Holy Cross University, which in 2021 said Carter earned a Master of Science in Management, “a degree that typically takes less time to complete than an MBA.”
About a dozen of the newspaper’s background queries yielded no response from the corresponding universities.
