Wednesday, 30 April 2025

President Trump Signs EO To OVERHAUL College Accreditation System

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President Trump signed an executive order this afternoon that targets the broken college accreditation system.

Basically, colleges and universities become accredited through third-party agencies, which play a big role in determining whether these higher education institutions can receive federal funds.

And, President Trump has just given these college accrediting agencies to change their criteria to prioritize merit over woke ideologies.

It also creates new accreditation pathways for higher learning institutions to become accredited in the first place.

Check it out:

JUST IN: President Trump has signed an Executive Order to revamp the higher education accreditation system. This move aims to ensure that colleges deliver high-quality education based on merit and performance, while minimizing ideological bias. The Department of Education is tasked with streamlining the process to focus on results. This change affects not only universities but also law and graduate programs. A clear step towards emphasizing meritocracy over ideology in admissions and instruction, ensuring students with genuine merit have better access to top schools.

CBS News reported:

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order aiming to change the college accreditation process so colleges are accredited based on “results,” with the president wondering aloud about looking into the math capabilities of students admitted to Harvard University and Yale University.

The president also signed an order to enforce laws on the books requiring universities to disclose when they accept large foreign gifts, with one of Mr. Trump’s top aides specifically calling out Harvard as a school they believe has violated the law. Federal law requires higher education institutions that receive federal funds to disclose any gifts or contracts from a foreign source valued at $250,000 or more in a calendar year, and some in Congress are trying to lower that threshold to $50,000.

The new executive orders come as the president has singled out Harvard University. His administration has frozen billions in federal funding to Harvard, demanded sweeping changes to school policies and suggested it should lose its tax-exempt status.

Colleges and universities are accredited to ensure they meet basic standards by third-party entities, not the federal government, though the Department of Education decides which accrediting agencies to recognize. The accreditation process has broad implications since the government uses it to determine which schools are allowed to participate in federal student aid programs, which distribute billions in student loans and grants.

The executive order directs the Department of Education to “hold accountable” any college accreditors that “fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law” — including by terminating or suspending the accreditors’ federal recognition. It specifically singles out accrediting agencies that require schools to “engage in unlawful discrimination … under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives.” The order also says the Department of Education should start recognizing new college accreditors.

The Trump administration believes accreditation entities have become too focused on “woke ideology” instead of results, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said. The executive order Mr. Trump signed affects law schools and graduate programs as well.

“The basic idea is to force accreditation to be focused on the merit and the actual results that these universities are providing, as opposed to how woke these universities have gotten,” Scharf said ahead of Mr. Trump signing the executive order. “So we’re setting up new accreditation pathways, we’re charging the Department of Education to really look holistically at this accreditation mess and hopefully make it much better.”

Newsweek added:

According to The Wall Street Journal, as it stands now, the order will change the criteria accrediting agencies must use when evaluating universities, requiring them to include measures of “intellectual diversity” and “student outcomes.” These agencies play a key role in determining whether colleges can access federal funds, including student loans.

The executive order is also expected to increase scrutiny of universities’ political climates and classroom instruction methods. However, the exact language used in the executive order may vary slightly.

Trump’s education agenda includes enhancing technological literacy. As reported by USA Today, another executive order expected to be signed today will direct the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation to prioritize artificial intelligence-focused coursework, teacher training, and related research in K-12 education.

Currently, only the Department of Education and the non-governmental Council for Higher Education Accreditation recognize accrediting bodies for institutions and provide guidelines for these accreditors.

Who Could Be Impacted by the Executive Order?

The move would directly affect accrediting agencies. It is unclear at this time whether agencies will be required to evaluate standards to reflect new federal requirements.

Indirectly, the changes could ripple across the entire higher education landscape, as colleges may adjust faculty hiring, curricula, and campus policies to remain eligible for accreditation—and, by extension, federal funding.

This could also indirectly impact many students who rely on student loans to attend college. Per the Education Data Initiative, in one year, about 28 percent of undergraduate students accepted federal loans.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.

View the original article here.


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