Posted on 11/27/2024 4:20:45 AM PST by MtnClimber
As is well-known, politics is the art of influencing behavior. As is also well-known, America’s institutions of higher education uniformly behave with a political orientation that renders them exponents of leftism, socialism, communism, and antisemitism.
President-Elect Donald Trump is determined to extinguish that behavior. He’s identified a vehicle for doing so, too: The role played by educational accreditation agencies for colleges and universities under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-329).
Under the HEA, the Department of Education approves accrediting agencies that the Secretary of Education determines to be reliable authorities regarding the quality of education or training institutions of higher education provide. The Department then publishes a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies.
Trump has clearly stated his plans for Higher Ed accreditation:
When I return to the White House, I will fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.
We will then accept applications for new accreditors who will impose real standards on colleges once again and once and for all.
[snip]
These standards will include defending the American tradition and Western civilization, protecting free speech, and eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs incredibly.
When the new accreditors take office, their mission will be two-fold: political and academic. Their political component will be to eliminate the Critical Race Theory, Diversity Equity & Inclusion, and antisemitism that have lately run riot on our college campuses.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Start by cleaning up the Education Departments.
“Start by cleaning up the Education Departments.”
Yes, in all the fifty states. They all march to one anti-American, anti-Christian drumbeat.
The Leftists in the Department of Education and in accrediting agencies who have pushed these Marxist, perverted requirements onto universities need to be indicted, tried, and convicted of giving aid and comfort to the domestic and foreign enemies of the United States.
Just nitpicking in general but there has to be a better word than “war” in situations like this as we often see. “War” in general can mean three different outcomes, win, lose, or tie.
Writers and politicos ought to using the term (or synonym) “disassembly” or “dismantle” for these kinds of government actions.
And regarding federal agencies “delete” is even better!
No. Eliminating these departments will allow PRIVATE accreditation bodies to compete in their stead, with one essential proviso.
There should be no accrediation for any college that cannot GUARANTEE (i.e., with MONEY (insurance) behind it) their graduates can do what their degrees say they can do. If you want transformation of higher education, that would do it.
The federal government needs to stop issuing new student loans.
The spring semester student loans will be issued by the time Trump takes office.
Fall funding for colleges would be in September. This allows about 8 months for new funding mechanisms to arise.
WIKI
Endowments greater than $1 billion
Private schools
1 Harvard University Massachusetts $49.495 [billion]
....
82 Denison University Ohio $1.002 [billion]
Public schools
1 University of Texas System Texas $44.96 [billion]
....
53 Clemson University South Carolina $1.027 [billion]
For public universities, larger endowments are often associated with flagship state universities, especially those associated with a medical school. Eighteen states do not have institutions included in this list: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Many of these states have small populations. The New England states, however, are known for well-endowed private institutions. New York is one of the few populous states without a public university with a large endowment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_the_United_States_by_endowment
I’m strongly in favor of storefront higher education.
A ‘professor’ would offer a course on a storefront higher education website, say
English Literature 101
Professor Michael Spivack
32 Storefront Avenue, Unit A
8am, Mondays, January 20 to May 19th
minimum enrollment 25, maximum enrollment 30
current enrollment deadline December 15th
$750 total, $250 enrollment deposit*
balance due on enrollment deadline
*refundable if enrollment minimum not reached
WIKI
Historically, educational accreditation activities in the United States were overseen by seven regional accrediting agencies established in the late 19th and early 20th century to foster articulation between secondary schools and higher education institutions, particularly evaluation of prospective students by colleges and universities.
The federal government began to play a limited role in higher education accreditation in 1952 with reauthorization of the G.I. Bill for Korean War veterans. The original GI Bill legislation had stimulated establishment of new colleges and universities to accommodate the influx of new students, but some of these new institutions were of dubious quality. The 1952 legislation designated the existing peer review process as the basis for measuring institutional quality; GI Bill eligibility was limited to students enrolled at accredited institutions included on a list of federally recognized accredited institutions published by the U.S. Commissioner of Education.
The U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) (a non-governmental organization) both recognize reputable accrediting bodies for institutions of higher education and provide guidelines as well as resources and relevant data regarding these accreditors. Neither the U.S. Department of Education nor CHEA accredit individual institutions. With the creation of the U.S. Department of Education and under the terms of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the U.S. Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies that the secretary has determined to be reliable authorities on the quality of education or training provided by the institutions of higher education and the higher education programs they accredit.
Professional schools, which are often graduate schools, have separate organizations for accreditation, e.g. American Board of Higher Education (ABHEC).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_education_accreditation_in_the_United_States
Hadn’t heard this. Thanks for the article. Jumping up and down with glee. Then maybe someday in the far future, I can hope, I can FINALLY feel comfortable sending a donation to my alma mater, U of Chicago. As of now, all begging letters go into the virtual circular file.
Kamala Harris should stay out of the grocery store business and a President Trump and other federal officials should stay out of the higher education business.
“a donation to my alma mater”
At about $60,000/year tuition, what I could afford to give to my alma mater would make no significant difference.
College education has three major problems as I see things:
1. cost
2. quality
3. hostile atmosphere
As much as practical, things should be left to marketplace forces.
What we really need is
1) Colleges backing the student loans. If a student can’t get a job to pay back the loan, the college eats it. Suddenly, they would become less willing to accept unqualified students or offer worthless courses.
2) We need a website which tracks student debt and median income for graduates (by college and major) at 1 and 3 years after graduation. Allow students and parents to make fully informed decisions as to whether a college major is a good idea.
Presidents don’t have authority over State bureaucracy. DeSantis has already been reforming Florida’s education system. It’s up to the governors.
“Presidents don’t have authority over State bureaucracy.”
Trump does have the authority to cancel an executive order that is issued by another president. Presidential executive orders have no authority over state bureaucracy. It is the same as one Congress can reverse what a previous Congress passes.
ELIMINATE DEPT OF ED. Memphis tried to take over all of Shelby Co schools, the smaller towns, sued, filed legislation, won. All the small towns now run their own elected school boards. Trouble is come election time, they send out no lit. or state party, or agenda. It works for the conservative Red areas, not the 4 Blue cities.
The education at Chicago was intense. But the teachers were the pits. They were all researchers and the only goal was to train more researchers. Dropout in physics was 90 percent and they were perfectly comfortable with that. I had the most AWFUL Nobel prize winning professor I can describe. So it wasn’t the education that stopped me from contributing. It was the darn liberal bent. In the 60’s no one protested as other schools. They were too busy arguing Robert’s Rules of Order. But they were still liberal then and it’s not gotten any better. Balance the politics and I’d give a little.
BTTT
Some of the wasteful positions will go away with rollbacks on some of the dumber federal regulations. Whole positions are created to make sure colleges are compliant with DOE regulations. That doesn’t even cover some of the software used to document compliance, which is also a huge cost. There is a whole thing going on about degrees that lead to licensure in a profession and if someone gets the degree from one state it may not qualify for them to be licensed in a different state. Because some people can’t figure that out on their own. Or something.
The administrative time this one takes is astonishing.
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