Trump Turns Rules for College Accreditors Into Cudgel for Agenda

The century-old system for oversight of college quality will be in the spotlight this week as the Trump administration considers big changes to college accreditation groups the president calls his “secret weapon” for targeting higher education.

The Education Department Monday will convene a panel of students, higher education institutions, and accreditors for a week-long so-called negotiated rulemaking to weigh the administration’s blueprint for upending how accreditors are regulated.

The administration is looking at the oversight system run by college accreditors to force schools to fall in line with policy priorities such as cracking down on diversity, equity, and inclusion it views as discriminatory. At stake is the threat of being cut off from the more than $100 billion in financial aid the government disperses every year.

Critics say the proposal seeks to weaken political independence of higher education, and forces accreditors to assume a role they were never meant to occupy: champions of President Donald Trump’s political agenda.

“They’re putting accreditors in this position of acting as the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Education,” said Nasser Paydar, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and former Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the department under President Joe Biden.

Accreditors oversee the academic quality and financial stability at colleges and universities, and approve access to federal funding based on compliance with their standards for institutions. Agencies can only become these gatekeepers by applying for and attaining recognition by the Education Department.

‘Milestone Step’

The administration’s proposal would mandate accreditors have standards requiring ideological diversity among college faculty, and ban them from having standards that push schools to have “preferences on the basis of race” in violation of federal and state law.

The 151-page proposal sets out other changes as well, such as requiring accreditors to weigh graduate earnings compared to the cost of their education when assessing specific degree programs at schools; making it easier for new accreditors to come onto the scene; and expanding the transferability of credits between schools.

The department said it aims to “promote high-quality, high value, and affordable education for students.”

Proponents of the blueprint say it’s a long-overdue overhaul.

“The accreditation system should operate in the best interests of students and society, and the draft rule is a milestone step towards getting us there,” said Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Six regional accreditors oversee traditional nonprofit colleges and universities in specific parts of the country. A bevy of national accreditors focus on specialized or professional programs at colleges, universities, and free-standing institutions in areas such as nursing and law.

White House Agenda

Trump last year signed an executive order criticizing accreditors for focusing on “compelling adoption of discriminatory ideology, rather than on student outcomes” through DEI-related standards for schools, and called out a few organizations by name. The administration has based its interpretation of “illegal” DEI initiatives on the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling that outlawed affirmative action in admissions.

Courts in recent cases have struck down the administration’s anti-DEI measures against schools, including another effort to threaten federal funding for K-12 schools and higher education institutions that had “illegal” DEI practices.

The proposal’s additional focus on benchmarks for student outcomes is one that the Biden administration also pursued. Accreditors would have to set minimum standards for graduation rates, post-graduation job placements, standardized test scores, and graduates’ earnings outcomes relative to tuition and fees.

The administration has also sought to ease the pathway to formation for aspiring accreditors and make it easier to gain federal recognition, which officials say will increase competition and give schools more options to choose accreditors.

Critics say this would rush unqualified and predatory actors into the system and encourage accreditor-hopping.

“Accreditors are regulators and should maintain high standards—they don’t function like companies, where competition leads to lower prices for consumers,” said Viviann Anguiano, managing director of higher education at the Center for American Progress.

“Lowering standards for these essential gatekeepers and the schools they oversee will waste taxpayer money and ultimately hurt students by letting them spend financial aid on programs of poor quality,” she said.