LDF Strongly Opposes the U.S. Department of Education’s Proposed Ideological Overhaul of the Higher Education Accreditation System

Read a PDF of our statement here.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) strongly opposes the Department of Education's proposed rule to weaken the higher education accreditation system and target institutions' lawful efforts to address racial discrimination and campus diversity. The proposed rule is a historic overreach into the operations of accreditors, independent bodies that serve to assess and ensure the quality of higher education programs that receive federal money. This is the Trump Administration's most recent attack on access to quality higher education.

Under the rule, institutions and accreditors that advocate for causes the Trump Administration disfavors would be at risk. The Department of Education ("ED") proposes using the accreditation process to add burdens to schools that seek to implement support services for various student populations, including Black students and other students of color, while policing ideological viewpoints on campus. The rule would also weaken the application and recognition requirements for new accreditors, potentially allowing organizations with little to no experience in ensuring program quality and institutional capacity to serve as gatekeepers for federal student aid programs. Accrediting agencies must be able to appropriately assess the quality of academic programs and not act as political pawns.

"The Administration is seeking to turn accreditation into another tool that it can use to punish institutions and organizations with which it disagrees," said Ray Li, Policy Counsel at LDF. "This proposed rule package from ED corrupts the accreditation system. We are alarmed that the Administration may prop up new accreditors to push its ideological agenda and potentially allow accreditation for unscrupulous, low-quality programs that saddle students with debt without providing them with meaningful economic opportunities post-graduation. New, low-quality accreditors would supercharge the ability of predatory programs to get access to billions of taxpayer dollars to defraud students and borrowers, especially Black students and borrowers who are disproportionately targeted by these programs. From ideological policing to chilling of lawful activities meant to support inclusive student bodies, these proposed changes will cause devastating shockwaves on campuses nationwide."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.