Why Bother Accrediting Colleges

Ron DeSantis filed yet another lawsuit against the feds today. This time his team has cranked out a 41 page argument against the very idea of college accreditation.

Congress shouldn't "delegate its legislative authority to trade or industrial associations or groups," the suit argues, yet "under the current scheme, private accreditors act '[a]s gatekeepers to $112 billion in annual federal student aid.'"

The DeSantis beef boils down to being required to get accreditation in order to collect that federal aid, including aid to students, who can only get college dollars if they're attending an accredited institution. 

The lawsuit nods at the reasoning behind this, the reasonable idea that students shouldn't be able to use taxpayer dollars to attend "Bob's Underwater Basket Weaving University." But having nodded, it moves quickly on. If Ron DeSantis wants his state to launch "Ron's College Of Aryan Knowledge," who are hte feds to tell him he can't get federal tax dollars, directly or indirectly, to support it?

DeSantis is not the only person railing against the "accreditation cartel." That phrase also appears in a "report" issued earlier this week by the Heritage Foundation, announced with a post entitled "It’s Time for Congress to Dismantle the Higher Education Accreditation Cartel."

Their aim is much the same. Colleges and universities should be able to get their hands on that money without having to convince some accreditation cartel member that they are "woke" enough or "follow regulations" or are, you know, "any good." 

This is, in short, another version of the same policy pursuit that we see with folks who want school vouchers to allow money to go to private schools without any regulatory strings attached. 

There is a certain level of irony here. This is a lawsuit saying, "Hey, you can't withhold funding from a school just because they don't do things the way you want them to," coming from a guy who has been very clear that he will withhold funding from any school that doesn't do things the way he wants them to. Unfortunately, I'm betting that this is not going to be the last we see of this particular dodge.