Press Releases

Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), incoming committee chairwoman, issued the following statements in response to Education Secretary John King’s upholding of the Education Department’s decision to terminate federal recognition of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS):

“The department’s decision will disrupt the education of students across the country, and it will hurt low-income and minority students the most,” Chairman Kline said. “There was another path that would have protected taxpayers and students, without disrupting hundreds of thousands of lives. Unfortunately, the secretary decided not to follow it. While Secretary King’s decision is certainly unprecedented, it comes as no surprise. This administration has led a continued and coordinated attack on career colleges and universities with little regard for the consequences of its actions.”

“The secretary’s decision will hurt hundreds of thousands of students who have been working hard to earn a postsecondary education, and those students will find themselves in an incredibly difficult situation. We should have never reached this point,” Chairwoman-designate Foxx said. “It’s clear accreditation is something we need to look at more closely as we work to improve our nation’s higher education system. The accreditation process must provide students and taxpayers the highest degree of accountability, and that includes identifying and correcting concerns before hundreds of thousands of students are harmed.”

 

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