Bipartisan Group Asks Education Secretary

To Hold Off On Changes to College Accreditation

Angela Januzzi

June 29, 2007

These past few weeks, a bipartisan group of 18 members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions sent a request to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, asking her to consider delaying her desired changes to the country’s college accreditation system.

The committee initially asked Spellings to wait until after the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act to review the system or enact any changes. The committee expressed support of Spellings’ goal to strengthen the accreditation system and support better quality higher education. However, the letter states that: “… given our Committee's expectation that the current accreditation provisions will soon be changed, and that a new round of rulemaking on this issue will subsequently be needed, we respectfully ask that you refrain from proposing new regulations on accreditations until after the Higher Education Act is reauthorized.”

Last week, she agreed.

Source: American Council on Education.