Jessica Blake
September 22, 2026
The president wants to reshape the accreditation system. Commenters argued that his administration’s plans violate federal law.
A number of accreditation agencies, student advocacy groups and university lobbyists say they see value in the underlying goals of President Trump’s proposed overhaul to accreditation policy, particularly the efforts to put more weight on student outcomes and cut back on red tape. But many doubt that rewriting higher ed’s quality-assurance regulations is the right vehicle to reach those goals.
“While [we] support and champion many of the proposed rulemaking’s goals, we believe the department should reexamine whether the accreditation process is the appropriate mechanism to achieve some of our shared priorities, especially in the context of … ED’s stated objective of Returning Education to the States,” the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities wrote in its public comment on the rule.