Trump proposed a 'secret weapon' to police colleges.
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Trump → propose → colleges
It will soon become reality
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It → become → ?
Trump proposed a 'secret weapon' to police colleges.
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Trump → propose → colleges
It will soon become reality
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It → become → ?
The Trump administration has made many changes to education policy that are hard to miss: cutting the U.S. Education Department's workforce by roughly half, canceling research funding, uprooting special education staff, upending student civil rights protections, overhauling student loan repayment plans, scaling back graduate school loans — the list goes on.
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list → make → loans
But the latest change — one President Donald Trump has called his "secret weapon" — has gone largely unnoticed, even as it's set to take effect in July.
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it → call → July
That's because it's hidden inside one singularly boring word:
Accreditation.
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it → hide → Accreditation
"The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical left," Trump said in a 2023 campaign video.
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Trump → come → video
Specifically, he pledged to overhaul it — a notably wonky threat from a politician who usually disdains wonkery.
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who → pledge → wonkery
Now, the Education Department has kept Trump's promise.
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Department → keep → promise
It's the system the U.S. government relies on to determine which colleges and universities are worthy of receiving millions, even billions of dollars in federal student loans and grants.
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colleges → rely → loans
In practical terms, colleges pay membership dues to third-party, nonprofit accreditors that then review the schools across a range of categories, including curriculum quality, faculty qualifications, physical facilities, the soundness of their finances and so on.
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that → pay → finances
An accreditor's job, essentially, is to make sure college students are getting good value and to prevent shady schools from pocketing taxpayer dollars without delivering quality degrees.
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students → make → degrees
Decades ago, Congress also made clear that accreditors are not part of the government.
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are → make → government
"Congress wanted accrediting agencies to be independent of the federal government.
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agencies → want → government
It wanted agencies to set standards independent of the federal government," says Antoinette Flores at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
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Flores → want → Accreditation
Federal law does require that accreditors assess schools in several key areas — such as student achievement, faculty and curriculum — and it gives the Department oversight.
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it → require → oversight
But Flores says, the law lets accreditors decide what standards a school must meet to determine its worthiness.
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school → say → worthiness
In keeping with Trump's 2023 promise, the department has now overhauled the federal rules for accreditors — changes it says will foster innovation and lower costs.
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it → keep → costs
Some higher education experts worry these changes will not only hurt students but also allow the department to further punish schools it doesn't like and even police campus political speech.
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it → worry → speech
"This rule gives [the Education Department] the authority to meddle in the internal affairs of colleges and universities in ways that they never have been able to in the past," warns Bob Shireman, an accreditation expert and former top official in the Obama Education Department.
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Shireman → give → Department
Changes to what accreditors will measure
While the Education Department cannot legally tell accreditors precisely how to evaluate colleges and universities, it does oversee some key requirements, and these new rules dramatically expand those requirements and the department's authority with them.
Most notably, accreditors must now evaluate school policies on intellectual diversity, "ensuring that students are exposed to a range of viewpoints," according to a department press release.
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students → measure → release
It's not entirely clear how that requirement will work in practice, but opposition has been loud.
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opposition → work → practice
"For the first time," Shireman says, "you will have an avenue for the federal government to go in at least to an accreditor, but through accreditors to colleges, and tell them what balance of points of view the federal government thinks they should have."
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they → say → view
The department could then, conceivably, threaten a school's accreditation and, ultimately, its access to federal student aid if it considers them out of balance.
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them → threaten → balance
Of this change, PEN America, a nonprofit dedicated to defending free expression, warned that "this is part of a plan to weaken [higher education] and its historic protections for the freedom to think, teach, research and learn.
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this → dedicate → freedom
"
The Education Department argues it's doing the opposite, calling this "a commonsense step toward restoring intellectual diversity by … creating an environment where differing perspectives can be debated openly and fairly," wrote Ellen Keast, communications director for the under secretary, in a statement to NPR.
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Keast → argue → NPR
"The regulations do not mandate any specific policies," Keast added, "nor do they give the Department any authority to police speech.
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they → mandate → speech
Instead, they reinforce a fundamental principle: truth emerges through rigorous debate, not enforced consensus.
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truth → reinforce → debate
Nevertheless, even some conservatives have expressed anxiety over this expansion of federal power.
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conservatives → express → power
Beth Akers, an economist and senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, supports much of the overhaul but says this particular change goes too far.
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change → support → overhaul
"[It] does put the administration sort of in a seat of judgment over the institutions, over the accreditors, about whether or not they are appropriately teaching ideology.
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they → put → ideology
And that is something I'm uncomfortable with," Akers says.
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Akers → say → ?
While the Education Department insists it cannot police political speech on campus, that is what Trump promised in that 2023 video, when he pledged to "fire the radical-left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs and lunatics."
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colleges → insist → Marxists
One enjoys some bipartisan support, says Emily Rounds, senior higher education policy adviser at the center-left think tank, Third Way.
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Rounds → enjoy → tank
That change will push accreditors to give more weight to student outcomes, Rounds says, focusing on questions like, "How much are they going to be earning?
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they → push → much
Does an institution retain students year to year or are students dropping out?"
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students → retain → year
The new accreditation rule changes are set to go into effect ahead of the 2027-28 academic year.
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changes → set → year
Because they were made through the traditional rulemaking process, it will be difficult for Democrats to undo them.
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Democrats → make → them
How we got here
Fresh political tension over accreditation began to boil during the Biden administration — between Republican-led states and accreditors they considered too powerful and too liberal.
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they → get → states
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
