President Trump signed on Wednesday an executive mandate aimed at College credentials, a group of unknown but long -standing companies that evaluate the educational quality and financial health of universities.
The mandate, one of the seven measures associated with the education it signed on Wednesday, was the last move by Mr Trump aimed at shifting the ideological inclination of the higher education system, which he considers hostile to conservatives. Its administration has escalated its struggle with elite universities in recent weeks, demanding significant changes in the recruitment, admission and curriculum practices. At least one, Harvard, chose to fight, creating a billions of dollars for academic independence.
A degree passing through accreditation companies, some of which existed for more than a century, is vital for colleges to gain access to $ 120 billion in federal financial aid approved each year. However, Mr Trump has accused these operations of promoting the kind of policies of diversity, justice and integration, whose administration has been proposed to eliminate.
During his latest presidential campaign, Mr Trump did not often talk about the credentials, who have long been a goal of conservative Republicans. But when he did, he maintained some of his most bitten attacks on them. In a policy video published in the summer of 2023, he was sworn in with “radical left, which allowed our colleges to dominate Marxist maniacs and crazy”.
Mr Trump’s order would make it easier for schools to change the credentials and for the new credentials to obtain federal approval, according to the White House, which provided events for the measures. The text of the orders was not readily available.
Bob Shireman, a senior associate at the Century Foundation, a liberal think tank studying college accreditation policy, inter alia, said that Mr Trump’s order would undermine institutional independence, which he said: “helped our universities to be the best in the world.”
“The federal government has been far from any involvement in a college curriculum and the current law prohibits this kind of invasion of academic affairs,” Shireman said, adding that the executive “steps away from this line”.
Linda McMahon, secretary of education, said that the current accreditation system has contributed to the increase in spending and “pushing universities in ideological directions”.
“The Ministry of Education will create a competitive market for higher education recognizers, which will give colleges and universities incentives and support to focus on reducing college costs, promoting innovation and providing a high quality post -secondary education.
Trump’s administration has a campaign against elite founders as a struggle against anti -Semitism, along with an attempt to eliminate the initiatives for diversity. Critics have said that impulse is more an attempt to enforce Mr Trump’s political agenda in the schools of the nation.
Still, the Crusade of the President against diversity programs has already influenced accreditation bodies. Last month, the American Psychological Society, which sets standards for vocational training in mental health, voted to suspend her claim that postgraduate programs show a commitment to a variety of recruitment and recruitment.
Mr Trump also signed executive orders to encourage the use of artificial intelligence in schools, promoting corporate relationships with historical black colleges and universities and increasing the number of specialized commercial jobs. Another order ordered his administration to make it more difficult for universities to hide details of foreign funding.
Two other orders focused on students’ discipline, which has been a political point of ignition for the last decade.
One order was to ensure that disciplinary policies were not based on Dei policies. Another restricts the use of the so -called rule of different impact, which the political rights groups have long said is an important tool for presenting discrimination against minorities.
Hard disciplinary tactics, such as suspensions, can help teachers manage the classrooms by removing disturbed students. But they can also hurt students who are already struggling, forcing them to lose critical lessons. Black students have historically been disciplined harder than white students, an issue that was vital to progressive education activists and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Under President Barack Obama, school districts were informed that if some groups of students were more often disciplined than other groups, a violation of the federal civil rights law could be considered. Mr Trump ruled out this order during his first term, but was restored under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Mr Trump’s mandate requires new federal instructions on discipline in local schools.
Dana Goldstein They contributed reports.
