LDF Strongly Urges the U.S. Department of Education to Reject Proposed New Rules on Higher Education Accreditation

Read a PDF of our statement here.

This week, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) urged the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to reject proposed new rules governing higher education accreditation, warning that the proposal could weaken protections and transform accreditation from a longstanding system of peer-based quality assessment into a tool for advancing political and ideological priorities. Accrediting agencies play a critical role in providing access to high-quality postsecondary opportunities for all students. LDF urges ED to withdraw the proposed rules and preserve the purpose of the accreditation system to ensure the quality and effectiveness of higher education institutions.

The Department issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on August 19, pushing for sweeping changes to the federal regulations that govern recognition of accrediting agencies. This Administration has repeatedly attacked the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and ED frames this NPRM as part of that attack. LDF is particularly concerned about provisions that could be used to restrict lawful efforts to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, as well as provisions that could threaten the academic freedom and First Amendment rights of students, faculty, institutions, and accrediting agencies. LDF cautions that the proposal gives the federal government new opportunities to intervene in institutional academic decision-making and to use accreditation to advance its harmful and legally unsupported political agenda.

"For decades, higher education accreditation has provided an important mechanism for institutions to assess educational quality through peer review," said Ray Li, Policy Counsel at LDF. "ED has framed this NPRM as a weapon that can target institutions attempting to make their campuses more inclusive and supportive for all students. These proposed new rules for higher education accreditation would especially have stark consequences for Black students and other students of color who historically have relied on rigorous standards to ensure they can receive the equal opportunity they are entitled to. The federal government should not use accreditation as a weapon to impose its own ideological or political agenda on colleges and universities. Accreditation must remain focused on educational quality, academic freedom, and the interests of students. The Department should respect the limits of its authority and should not use accreditation to accomplish through regulation what Congress has not authorized."

LDF also warned that weakening the independence of the accreditation system could have particularly serious consequences for Black students and other marginalized communities, including by limiting institutions' ability to address longstanding inequities in higher education. At the same time, the proposed rules could diminish the Department's own role as a safeguard against low-quality accreditors and institutions that put students and federal student aid at risk.

Read the full comment.

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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.