Here are remarks I offered today during the public comment segment of a meeting of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI):

At the February meeting, I urged you to speak up in the face of an unprecedented attack on the quality and integrity of higher education by this administration. That attack has since gotten much worse.

It is a blatant effort to extort all of higher education to conform to one ideology – threatening to cut off federal funds unless schools abandon equal opportunity, unless schools silence free speech while teaching quote “conservative ideas,” unless schools persecute students who only want to express their personal identities.

A recent such threatening letter from the White House to nine universities did include one positive item – calling on schools to provide better educational value. But the man behind the letter, it turns out, is a billionaire donor who owns the University of Phoenix, which has faced multiple law enforcement actions for deceptively selling low quality programs.

At the same time, cuts to Department staff have gutted teams that focus on investigations, oversight, and enforcement. 

The Department even cancelled a fine against Grand Canyon University that was the result of a careful investigation showing the school deceived students regarding program costs. The Department falsely claimed the Biden team persecuted Grand Canyon because it is Christian-oriented –  ignoring that many of the students who were tricked were themselves Christians, while the for-profit recipient of Grand Canyon’s revenues is a Wall Street-traded corporation, not a Christian.

The Department also has undermined the independence of NACIQI, including by rejecting after the fact the valid action in February that made Dr. Smith Ellis the chair.

Secretary McMahon appointed Mr. Eitel to this panel.  He was a senior executive at two of the worst predatory for-profit college companies, which have taken billions from taxpayers and ruined students’ lives. Now he runs a group that aggressively opposes the rights of transgender students.

Accreditation review should focus on oversight to prevent shoddy practices, so taxpayers invest in knowledge and innovation, so we help workers and our economy.

Accreditation and its oversight should not be a vehicle for protecting abusive companies, or waging culture wars, or advancing the political agenda of a vengeful president. Accreditation review, like academic inquiry itself, should be based on facts, not disinformation; consistent standards, not bias; integrity and independence, not obedience to special interests; and respect for all our children, not bigotry and persecution.

US higher education has long been the world’s greatest. There is much room to improve. But the actions of this administration are a grave threat. Please make NACIQI a force for protecting education and our students.