President Trump has issued a flurry of education-related Executive Orders this month. Two are on issues of concern for the National Association of Scholars: accreditation reform and foreign influence at colleges and universities.
The Executive Order to reform accreditation is common sense. Accrediting agencies became common in the 1950s shortly after the federal "G.I. Bill," which gave World War II veterans low-interest loans for college to help them re-enter civilian life. Accreditors were supposed to be quality control, ensuring selected schools were legitimate, trustworthy, and offering reputable programs—not scam schools trying to get in on the flow of federal funds.
But today's accrediting bodies, like most of American higher education, have become hopelessly politicized. They no longer ensure academic quality but instead enforce political correctness and also act as a cartel to protect established institutions from outside competition. They effectively exclude newcomers and innovation.
Perhaps this explains the myriad problems of the current system, such as soaring tuition, unprecedented student loan debt, ignorant college graduates, and a generally unskilled and undisciplined youth population comprising a lackluster, unreliable workforce. The list goes on.
What to do?
First, depoliticize accreditation. Check: The Executive Order bans “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives (DEI) as part of school assessments. Pernicious diversity ideology has displaced real learning in many—maybe even most—American schools. As parents, students, and graduates say, schools now indoctrinate rather than educate. Trump's EO seeks to end to the endless politicization.
Second, help new accreditors—and therefore new colleges—enter the field. Check again: The EO facilitates the recognition of new accreditors, streamlining and expediting the process by which the Education Department formally acknowledges newcomers.
Third, ensure that federally funded colleges and universities are not breaking the law—especially that they are not discriminating on the basis of race as directed by the United States Supreme Court in its 2023 opinion, Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, which forbid the use of racial preferences in admissions. Race-based identity politics does not belong in any American school. Accreditors should not participate in this grievance machine, nor should they allow colleges to take part. Check number three.
In short, the accreditation reforms in Trump's Order are all to the good.
The President is also serious about exposing foreign influence in American education, including from countries of concern such as China.
Federal law already requires colleges and universities to report foreign gifts if they're over $250,000.
But schools ignore the law!
During the first Trump administration, the Education Department's General Counsel Reed Rubinstein issued an October 2020 report on this topic, finding that over $6 billion in foreign money given to American schools went completely unreported. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was in the process of putting a stop to this noncompliance. Trump appears now to be building on that prior work.
But the President is also picking up the ball from the House of Representatives, which last month passed the DETERRENT Act or HR 1048 (Defending Education Transparency and Ending Rogue Regimes Engaging in Nefarious Transactions Act), now pending in the Senate. The Act reduces the reporting threshold from $250,000 to $50,000. Funds from countries of concern, such as China, must be reported for any value more than $0. The Act also requires gifts to individual faculty and staff to be disclosed.
Trump's EO additionally threatens to freeze federal grants at noncompliant schools and directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to reverse Biden's actions that “allow universities to obscure details regarding foreign funding.”
In brief, good news from Trump's Executive Orders on reforms for accreditation and for the reporting of foreign money in American higher education.
Photo by Cage Skidmore // Flickr // CC BY-SA-2.0
