WASHINGTON, DC—A subcommittee for the House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on higher education accreditation with American Council of Trustees and Alumni chairman Jerry L. Martin as a witness.
The focus of the hearing is “H.R. 4238, the College Access and Opportunity Act: Does Accreditation Provide Students and Parents Accountability and Quality?”
Six regional accrediting agencies are now gatekeepers of federal student aid funds—more than $40 billion annually. The legislative rationale for giving this power to accreditors is to ensure quality.
ACTA criticizes accreditors for their failure to ensure quality and calls upon Congerss to provide much-needed competition.
The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a national network of college and university trustees and alumni dedicated to academic excellence, academic freedom and accountability. Last year, ACTA issued a report on accreditation, “Can College Accreditation Live Up to Its Promise?”
Gwenda Kaczor for The Chronicle Overhauling higher-education accreditation could be on the agenda for conservative lawmakers and policy mavens now that Donald J. Trump has been re-elected president.
Tremors from the election continue to ripple across the country, and the meltdown among the Democrats rages on. What is undeniable is that there is a real opportunity to make some much-needed reforms now.
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