Posted on 04/23/2025 9:53:43 AM PDT by karpov
It is a low bar to clear, but college accreditation has never been so hotly commented on as at present. Many in the higher-ed world fear for its future. Two recent columns in the Chronicle of Higher Education are typical.
In one, Robert Shireman, a Democratic appointee to the committee that advises the secretary of education on the recognition of accrediting agencies, warns of an “accreditation war” driven by “Christian nationalism.” Republican “Christian nationalists,” Shireman believes, “don’t want their own, separate, accrediting agency; they want to force the rest of higher education to accept their radical beliefs.” The implicit premise here is that higher education’s status quo is value-neutral and purely rational and that conservative would-be reformers—not, say, Shireman and his colleagues at the progressive Century Foundation—are the extremist radical
In the second, Gardner-Webb University associate provost Greg Pillar and accreditation consultant Laurie Shanderson imagine the consequences of President Trump’s campaign promise to “fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs.” They fear that new accrediting agencies created by Republican-controlled states and recognized by the Trump administration would not garner the respect of “employers and graduate programs,” thus “disadvantaging students in affected states.” In such a “politicized,” “bifurcated accreditation system, … institutions aligned with traditional accreditors [would] maintain credibility while those accredited by new, politically driven agencies [would] face skepticism.”
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
why are “accreditors” needed at all?
unneeded, self-important. and ideological accreditors are just imposing a monopoly from which they can skim profits and exert political control.
“I want to outlaw my competition.”
>>In such a “politicized,” “bifurcated accreditation system, … institutions aligned with traditional accreditors [would] maintain credibility while those accredited by new, politically driven agencies [would] face skepticism.”
Simple solution, stop recognizing the “traditional” Marxist accreditors. They have failed to do their job of basic quality assurance of universities.
They aren't. Real accreditation would be by those willing to insure a guarantee on the educational product.
Accepting Jesus as Lord, loving of country = radical beliefs.
Baby killing and child sexual mutilation = OK.
Who's the radical here?
if the DOE is actually shut down...and no one is there to accredit the accreditors....what then?
They aren't. Real accreditation would be by those willing to insure a guarantee on the educational product.
Agree with this post and other FReepers on this. Yet so far I didn't see the real problem -- federal money in "higher" education. Get rid of the federal money and the real "accreditors" will be the people who choose to hire students because the education is good. If nobody hires graduates from such and such school with such and such degrees, then count the school as unaccredited.
In numerous states, I believe you normally need to attend an accredited law school to take the bar. Med schools (stateside) are even stricter.
1) See which schools/degrees/majors matter to getting hired/promoted in your desired industry.
<>P> 2) If that includes passing the bar and it requires going to certain schools then only those schools are candidates.
3) If either 1 or 2 is a grad school, then ask the administrators of the grad school(s) which undergrad colleges/degrees/majors are of value to get into that grad school.
Then you have your GPS, if you will, of which schools are the new "accredited".
I was speaking in principle, not to the way the system is structured now. I really don't see added value in accreditation even for medical professionals. Colleges and universities are fully capable of validating entry capabilities of prospective students for advanced professional work.
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