Press Releases | Trusteeship

Accrediting Monopoly Needs Competition, Education Leader to Tell U.S. House

June 22, 2004

WASHINGTON, DC—A subcommittee for the House Education and the Workforce Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on higher education accreditation with American Council of Trustees and Alumni chairman Jerry L. Martin as a witness.

The focus of the hearing is “H.R. 4238, the College Access and Opportunity Act: Does Accreditation Provide Students and Parents Accountability and Quality?”

Six regional accrediting agencies are now gatekeepers of federal student aid funds—more than $40 billion annually. The legislative rationale for giving this power to accreditors is to ensure quality.

ACTA criticizes accreditors for their failure to ensure quality and calls upon Congerss to provide much-needed competition.

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni is a national network of college and university trustees and alumni dedicated to academic excellence, academic freedom and accountability. Last year, ACTA issued a report on accreditation, “Can College Accreditation Live Up to Its Promise?”

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