Jan Resseger writes here about Betsy DeVos’s decision to overrule a strong recommendation from Department career staff and resinstate an accrediting agency with a terrible record.
Before the Obama Department of Education put the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) out of business in 2016, ACICS had been instrumental in accrediting a number of unscrupulous, for-profit colleges whose fiscal survival depended on attracting students bringing dollars from federal loans. After ACICS was put out of business by the Obama Department of Education, ACICS filed a lawsuit claiming its record had not been fully examined. In March of this year, a federal judge ruled in favor of the accreditation agency—saying that the Department of Education still needs to consider 36,000 pages of information ACICS submitted that was never considered. On April 3, 2018, after the judge’s ruling, Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos conditionally reapproved ACICS pending further study.
Last Friday, however, DeVos’s department was forced to release an internal report drafted by career staff at the U.S. Department of Education, a report condemning ACICS and recommending that its status as an accreditor be terminated. In April, DeVos ignored this new staff report when she restored—conditionally— the agency’s status. The Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Eric Kelderman explains: “For the second time in less than two years, officials at the U.S. Department of Education have recommended against approving a controversial accrediting agency that primarily oversees for-profit colleges. But their finding may have little effect on the accreditor’s future. Friday evening, the department released a 244-page document advising that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, known as ACICS, failed to meet nearly 60 federal regulations on accreditation. The analysis is a draft of a report that was meant to be released in May at a hearing scheduled to consider the accreditor’s status. That hearing was cancelled following a judge’s order in a lawsuit filed by the council.”
Advocates have pressured for the release of the Department’s internal draft report, while, of course, ACICS has been trying to block the report’s becoming public. The Wall Street Journal‘s Michelle Hackman explains: “The document was released Friday under the Freedom of Information Act after the Century Foundation… sued the Education Department for initially declining to make it public. ‘It’s no wonder that ACICS and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos didn’t want this report to come out,’ said Alex Elson, a former Obama-era Education Department official whose firm, the National Student Loan Legal Defense Fund, helped sue the department. ‘Clearly, she was well aware that ACICS was getting worse, not better.’ The career staff’s findings could put Mrs. DeVos in a tough position as she weighs whether to allow the accreditor to continue operating.”
Why would DeVos do this?
Does she like accrediting agencies that ignore fraud?
Apparently the answer is yes.
After all, she was an investor in for-profit colleges before she became secretary. Did she divest? Who knows?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sorry to hijack, but speaking of Betsy DeVos, this is an entertaining (if nauseating) read: https://www.theroot.com/slaves-dinosaurs-and-white-jesus-oh-my-how-taxpayers-1826768935 I recommend reading the comments too.
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Dienne: This is sickening. How can the US continue to be prominent in the world when children grow up putting down other cultures and being so ignorant about history and science? Dinosaurs and clean cut white kids all enjoying each other? Unbelievable.
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It’s obvious to me that Betsy and the rest of the private sector greedy mob of pirates out to destroy the traditional public schools and replace them with a host of FOR PROFIT failing voucher schools and corporate charters have to have an accrediting agency to legitimize these inferior schools that could never earn accreditation from a legitimate accrediting agency.
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Why does “heavens to Betsy” do this? Easy; money.
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I’m dammed if I can glean a consistent credo from the reactionary wing of the school-choice crowd. DeVos is in that camp.
Much is lifted from libertarians (“govt schools”, “free market economy”, “eliminate Dept of Ed”). But libertarians believe in complete separation of govt and education. At most, they are willing to accept tax credits for K12 school tuition and childcare as interim measures. Their last-resort interim support goes only to state K12, college & uni, so as to conform to state constitutions [“states’ rights”]. That doesn’t square with tax-supported loans for national post-secondary vo-tech chains like Corinthian Colleges and ITT Technical Institute.
DeVos may seem to be a horse of a different color, as she is clearly all about tax-supported religious schools. But perhaps she is libertarian at heart, & would prefer a system where govt was exorcised, & folks could use that freed-up tax $ to support– whatever.
Given tax-supported loans for national post-secondary vo-tech chains – inherited from previous admins – who among reactionary school-choicers wouldn’t be for vetting the schools before accrediting, to guard against squandering taxpayer $s? Hmm… This might be some warped extension of the libertarian doctrine. Perhaps the rationale is, caveat emptor – if enough people are bankrupted by DofEd loans to crummy post-2’y vo-techs, students will “walk”… the word will spread & such schools will fold?
Clearly a line has been crossed from conservatism to libertarianism by this DeVos move. Conservatives want to conserve, & generally back accountability for expenditure of tax $. Libertarians au contraire seem willing to countenance any flagrancy of taxpayer expenditure as long as it moves folks toward caveat emptor/ free market behavior — they’ll hope this hastens the day when DofEd & its taxpayer-supported higher ed ceases to exist.
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In a really free market, public, private and religious schools would get no money. You are on your own.
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Correct. This is thle libertarian vision, which I nelieve is shared by our Secy of Ed.
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