Editorial: Edison State College

Readers may have noticed the headline the other day — "Nursing program gets national accreditation."

The story told of how Edison State College's four-year bachelor's degree program in nursing, a pioneer in its field, has won a favorable review from the National League for Nursing Accreditation.

This is a big deal.

It is a big deal for assuring the Edison program follows best practices in training.

It's a big deal as well for serving as an indicator that Edison is working its way back out of a hole dug by the previous administration that promised more than it delivered.

The nursing program, launched in 2009, had never been accredited. The application had never even been submitted. This time last year Edison officials acknowledged the college had misled students about the program's status.

The shocking disclosure was consistent with Edison allowing some four-year degree-seekers in other fields of study to graduate without completing core courses in their majors. Rules seemed to be improvised while the Edison Board of Trustees was in the dark or did not care.

Today is a new day at Edison, with a new board majority and president determined to right the ship and make sure the Southwest Floruda institution walks the walk as well as talks the talk.

The nursing designation has real-world application for students who want to further their education. Schools further up the chain do not recognize degrees from unaccredited programs.

The new notice of accreditation applies to the students now in the program as well as those who graduated in May. It does not apply to the nearly 100 students who graduated in the three years the program existed with only the promise of accreditation. About 50 students decided last year to delay their graduations pending this important accreditation step.

A story elsewhere in our paper on the same day as the accreditation story told of state-of-the-art robotics being employed in the nursing program, with machines posing as patients.

Equipment and facilities are the easy parts. The integrity and academic standards are the hard parts. It is good to see Edison getting back to delivering on the promise to the community it serves and uplifts.