ICYMI: The Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke has published an important paper on the Higher Education Act’s (HEA) pending reauthorization this year, with a thorough analysis of the existing law and recommendations for amendment. Since 1965, the HEA has governed almost every aspect of federal higher education policy, including government loan and grant programs. Since students can only use federal money to attend accredited institutions, the HEA also governs the college accreditation system.

In additional to its dubious constitutionality, our current system of college accreditation is terribly outdated and makes it extremely difficult for innovative, cost-cutting alternatives to traditional higher education to get off the ground. As Burke writes:

Currently, accreditation is a de facto federal enterprise, with federally sanctioned regional and national accrediting agencies being the sole purveyors of accreditation. The result has been a system that has created barriers to entry for innovative start-ups by insulating traditional brick-and-mortar schools from market forces that could reduce costs. The existing accreditation regime has also made it difficult for students to customize their higher education experience to fully reach their earnings and career potential.

One issue that ought to be emphasized in future discussion is the degree to which college accreditation not only prevents innovation, but also fails in its basic mission of ensuring that federal dollars only go to schools of solid academic quality. The number of accredited institutions with, for example, dismal graduation rates, is absolutely jaw-dropping.

Ultimately, the paper advocates for “decoupling federal financing from accreditation.” This is certainly a bold and welcome call. Only by returning accrediting agencies to their original role as voluntary peer reviewers can we begin to undo the damage they have done to American higher ed.

Luckily, this discussion will continue later this month at the Heritage Foundation. On September 22, ACTA President Anne Neal will be joined by the Cato Institute’s Neal McCluskey and the head of ACTA’s accreditation reform initiative, former Senator Hank Brown, for a panel discussion on higher education reform and the need to decouple accreditation from federal funding. You can find more details here.