North Carolina Has Ideas for Tempering Politics on Public-College Boards

HEADLINES

North Carolina Has Ideas for Tempering Politics on Public-College Boards. Will They Go Anywhere? (Chronicle of Higher Education, June 15, 2023) Higher-education advocates in the state have blamed tensions on the system’s board for dragging partisan politics into the board room. North Carolina lawmakers have drafted legislation requiring all the state’s public colleges to seek a new institutional accreditor.

Florida Governor Challenges Federal College Accreditation Rules (University of Florida, alligator.org, July 10, 2023) The lawsuit targets Education Secretary Miguel Cardona along with other government officials, claiming the administration is violating the private non-delegation doctrine, the Appointments Clause and the Spending Clause. Having an accrediting agency is also mandatory for a school to ensure its students are eligible for federal financial aid.

Washington Watch: Florida Lawsuit Targets Federal Role in Accreditation (Community College Daily, June 29, 2023) (Opinion) Accreditation continues to play an essential and complex role in campus life. Not only is it a marker of academic quality, but it also maps higher education’s rules of the road, outlining an institution’s basic educational and related policies and processes.

‘Fire the Accreditors’ Is a Bad—and Illegal—Idea (Inside Higher Ed, June 28, 2023) (Opinion) Federal law is clear—the government cannot dictate accreditation standards. Accrediting agencies perform a wide range of functions for colleges and universities, but accreditors are designed to ensure that colleges offer high-quality education and training and that the interests of students and taxpayers are protected.