Inside Higher Ed has a piece today that weighs in on the on-going fight in Washington over Secretary Spellings’ attempt to use her leverage over the accreditors to force changes in the way colleges educate.
The last comment is, I think, right on target. Even if all the accrediting changes Secretary Spellings wants go through, little will change.
When Eisenhower was elected president, someone said something to this effect, “Poor Ike. He’s used to the military, where he gives and order and something happens. In Washington, he’ll give orders and the bureaucrats will keep on doing whatever they want.” That’s the situation with accrediting.
The Education Department can give all the orders it wants, but the schools and accrediting associations will go on doing pretty much the same things they have been doing for decades.