An embattled college accreditor that survived several rounds of federal scrutiny over the course of three presidential administrations may have finally run out of time.
The US Department of Education on Friday said it had denied the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools’ appeal to hold on to its federal status as a college accreditor.
The decision could mean an end to ACICS’ long-running encounters with the federal government, which stretch back to 2016. That’s when the Obama-era department originally tried to strip the agency of its recognition following the closures of two massive for-profit colleges .
Trouble continued to find ACICS. A USA TODAY network investigation in 2020 revealed the accreditor had approved Reagan National University, a college in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that had no students or faculty. Cindy Marten, the department’s deputy secretary, made the final decision on ACICS’ appeal and said it was out of compliance with the government’s standards.
“Recognition by the Department must be reserved for agencies that adhere to high standards, just as accreditation by agencies must be reserved for institutions and programs that adhere to high standards,” Marten said. “Its continuing failure to reach full compliance with this criterion alone is a sufficient basis to terminate ACICS’ recognition.”
Denial of the appeal means roughly two dozen schools approved by the agency have 18 months to find a new accreditor or they will lose access to federal financial aid in the form of student loans and grants. ACICS primarily accredited for-profit colleges, institutions which tend to rely on federal funding to stay afloat.
The decision comes at a time when the Biden administration has said it would crack down on predatory colleges that take federal money and leave taxpayers without degrees that can improve their earnings.
Advocates for college accountability praised the department’s decision, although the action was overdue according to Michael Itzkowitz, a senior fellow studying higher education at Third Way, a center-left think tank.
“While it shouldn’t have taken this long, the federal bureaucracy has finally worked its course,” Itzkowitz said. “This action will save taxpayers billions of dollars that will no longer flow to underperforming institutions, not to mention the hardship that students have felt by obtaining a worthless degree from an ACICS institution.”
The federal government does not accredit colleges directly, and instead relies on accreditors to vet universities. An accredited institution can access federal money, including student loans or Pell Grants.
Eric Rothschild, litigation director of the National Student Legal Defense Network, a watchdog group focused on accountability in higher education, said students rely on these agencies to “validate that the schools where they spend their time and money will meet a baseline level of quality. ”
“It’s great to see the Department take this long-overdue action to protect students and taxpayers,” Rothschild said. “We are talking about an entity that accredited a school that didn’t even exist and continues to rubber stamp some of the worst for-profit colleges.”
What is the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools?
ACICS used to be one of the largest college accreditors in the country. It oversaw 290 institutions and hundreds of thousands of students in 2016, but now it accredits just 27 institutions with about 3,800 students, according to the Education Department. Its institutions received about $110 million in federal aid in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
It also accredited dozens of schools operated by Corinthian Colleges and separately signed off on ITT Technical Institute. Both were massive institutions that shut down in the mid-2010s with little warning, disrupting students’ lives and costing taxpayers billions. The federal government recently forgave more than $10 billion in student loan debt for students who attended Corinthian Colleges and ITT Tech.
The Obama administration-era Department of Education stripped the agency of its power in 2016. Following a federal court decision, the Trump administration-era department under then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reinstated the accreditor in 2018.
A USA TODAY network investigation in 2020, however, found the accreditor had approved Reagan National University. Links on the university’s website did not work, and reporters could not find evidence that anyone attended or taught courses at the college. ACICS had approved the institution anyway, although it withdrew from accreditation just a few days before USA TODAY’s investigation was published.
Following the story, the Education Department started an inquiry of the group in 2020. By 2021, the federal government again moved to strip the accreditor of federal recognition. The agency appealed the department’s findings shortly thereafter, but it took the Education Department another year to respond. Its decision Friday ends the appeal process.
The accreditor could file a legal challenge, as they did following the 2016 decision, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the agency had plans to do so. ACICS did not immediately return a request for comment.
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