Project 2025 and Accreditation

With a looming alleged 50% Reduction In Force (RIF) at the US Department of Education, it is interesting to see what Project 2025 proposes regarding accreditation. CHEA posted this last summer.

"The document’s Education Department chapter includes proposals calling for dismantling the Department of Education. It details plans to overhaul the accreditation system. Under the plan, Congress would pass legislation prohibiting accreditors from requiring institutions to set DEI policies. States would be allowed to authorize accrediting agencies and serve as accreditors themselves."

https://www.chea.org/project-2025-would-radically-overhaul-higher-ed-heres-how

There is within the CHEA page a link to a Inside Higher Education Article.

Would State authorized accrediting agencies and States being accreditors make things less expensive for schools? Would it bring a greater lack of uniformity and consistency?

 

A few articles highlighted by CHEA regarding President Trump's shakeup and accreditation.

https://www.chea.org/accreditors-brace-trumps-promised-higher-ed-shakeup

 

More of it from Trump's website.

"President Trump has pledged to fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.

He will impose real standards on American colleges and universities, to include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, removing all DEI bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low-cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are getting their money's worth." (Agenda 47)

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-protecting-students-from-the-radical-left-and-marxist-maniacs-infecting-educational-institutions

Not sure how all of that will play out but changes are afoot to accreditation.

 

There are questions:
- If the States accredit what happens to the accreditors?
- What about Professional or Specialized accreditors?
- If the States recognize accreditors what happens if accreditors are recognized in one State and not another?
- Does this give individual states more regulatory power to tighten the screws on accreditors they don't like? Could work both ways where a conservative State's regulatory body bears down on an accreditor with a liberal agenda or a liberal State where their regulatory body bears down on a Faith based accreditor.
Or the regulatory body bears down on the APA over transgender issues or conversion therapy.

You are also right that it could also spark a new era in innovation.

Lots of questions but few answers.

 

Would State authorized accrediting agencies and States being accreditors make things less expensive for schools?
Don’t think so.
Would it bring a greater lack of uniformity and consistency?
I do think so. Look what happened after Roe v Wade was overturned. Different states doing different things. One state might not recognize another state's degree or accreditation.

 

I speculate that funding and resources for state-authorized accrediting agencies would largely depend on tax revenues.
Historically, this has led to issues, as some states have struggled to effectively regulate or enforce approval in a less strict than accreditation standards. California, for instance, has had challenges in oversight, and Hawaii has been known for its more lenient rules. This raises concerns about inconsistencies and potential gaps in quality assurance across states.

 

I expect to see new predatory colleges enter the scene at a higher rate than ever. Maybe Trump University will make a comeback for an RA bachelors degree in anti-liberal studies.

 

The simple fact that the terms “radical”, “maniacs” and “lunatics” are used in this context tells us everything that we need to know. This is just a personal vendetta against regulations that dared to call out his fraud. There is no actual good that can come from anything that Trump is doing except allow fraudsters to legally commit fraud. If you support Trump, you have been fooled or you are a fraudster. There are no alternative “facts”.

 

Let's see what happens with Florida and all those "etherial, legal, authroized" degrees.

 

Trump is addressing a perceived ideological imbalance in higher education. You may not agree with it however the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time that a significant number of Americans agree with him. It is not an outlier position. The situation is exacerbated by the championing of Mahmoud Khalid by Trump's opposition which will only galvanize support for Trump's position on higher ed. Additionally, higher ed has become something of a Ponzi scheme by churning out ever increasing numbers of indebted graduates for which there are no jobs in their specialties. DOE stands for the status quo hence the frontal assault on it.

 

Great plan. Let’s remove the main federal agency overseeing education and let companies have at it. Let them make as much money as they want off the backs of college students. That will surely solve the education crisis in American...

 

In the early 1980s, there was an attempt to move accreditation to the states. California even passed a law stipulating that California state approval was legally indistinguishable from accreditation. Needless to say, it didn't stick. There was too much money riding on it. Today that's even more so.

 

I think that a problem doing it at the state level is that it would be difficult to have 50 approximately equal quality accreditation standards.

 

I believe US accreditation standards are about to be more laxed if Trump gets his way with everything from an educational standpoint.

 

If one believes that education as a whole is currently in a good place then you are absolutely right. Many folks have an opposite position which is why DOE is on the way out.

 

That fine, I agree we need to reform education in America, but let’s not choose a worse solution that just accelerates the current issues. Every other developed nation on Earth has figured out a more affordable system of education, yet almost all have done so by expanding the power of federal oversight, not eliminating it altogether.