This week, higher education experts are meeting in Washington to update regulations about accreditation — the quality assurance process that oversees $110 billion taxpayer-funded financial aid dollars.
Many of the conversations had during this process are valuable, like those about strengthening student outcomes and academic freedom protections. But the Trump administration’s reliance on making accreditation changes through regulatory action rather than revising the statutes prioritizes rhetoric over enduring reform.
Regulations are, by their nature, evanescent. They can be imposed without congressional oversight, so presidential administrations are able to use them to interpret (or exploit) vague statutes to suit their needs. Higher education has been particularly vulnerable to this trend; since 2011, each presidential administration has put forth its own interpretation of Title IX’s protections against sexual harassment.
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The result has been a decade of regulatory whiplash, causing confusion and costing students and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. This week’s rulemaking might give the Trump administration a short-term political win. But it does not take an expert to predict that if the White House changes hands, it is unlikely that a Democratic president will share President Donald Trump’s vision for accreditation.
The state of higher education demands durable congressional action, not fleeting regulatory reform. Today, more than a third of colleges fail to graduate half their students, and those colleges receive more than $20 billion in federal funds annually. At the same time, institutions are spending billions on services that do little to increase graduation rates. Colleges and their accreditors have been stubbornly unwilling to self-regulate, and the current rules do not properly incentivize improving student outcomes. The Department of Education cannot solve this either, as statute prohibits the Secretary from creating new standards in this area. This deference to the industry does not serve students and families well.
To tackle these pernicious trends, Congress must reauthorize and amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make lasting changes to improve quality assurance and student outcomes. This law was designed to be updated on a five-year cycle to keep the statute up to date with what should be America’s most innovative sector. In practice, it hasn’t been reauthorized in nearly 20 years, leaving regulators to fill the gaps left by congressional inaction.
In updated legislation, Congress needs to prioritize oversight that ensures that students receive a quality education at an affordable price. Legislators should mandate specific student outcome measures and set benchmarks that colleges must meet to receive federal financial aid. To do otherwise is a gross waste of taxpayer dollars and students’ time and resources. Institutions should also be required to publish their costs and outcomes.
Students and families deserve to know how much college will cost, what their expected earnings will be, and if their education will prepare them for success in the workplace before spending time and money filling out applications. Legislators should also make sure that institutions protect faculty rights and students’ freedom of speech — regardless of political affiliation. The free exchange of ideas on campus is an essential part of student learning.
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This week’s Department of Education meetings cannot create lasting improvements for students or taxpayers. Our organizations, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and Third Way, are often on different sides of the political aisle. While we don’t always see eye to eye on policy issues, but Republican or Democrat, we agree that higher education is in desperate need of an improved quality assurance framework.
Lasting change requires an act of Congress, and America’s students deserve no less.
Kyle Beltramini is a senior research fellow at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Emily Rounds is the senior higher education policy advisor at Third Way.