Reforming Accreditation To Strengthen Higher Education
The order directs the Secretary of Education to hold higher education accreditors accountable — up to and including suspending or terminating their federal recognition — if they impose diversity, equity, and inclusion standards that the administration considers unlawful discrimination.
It specifically targets the American Bar Association's law school accreditor and the medical school accreditation bodies, and orders a broader reform of accreditation to refocus on measurable student outcomes, intellectual diversity, and reduced credential inflation.
What this order does
What it orders
The order directs the Secretary of Education to hold accreditors accountable — through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of federal recognition — when they require institutions to engage in what the order characterizes as unlawful discrimination under the guise of DEI accreditation standards. It directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education jointly to investigate the ABA's law school accrediting body and assess whether to suspend or terminate its federal recognition. It similarly directs the Attorney General, Secretary of Education, and Secretary of Health and Human Services to investigate the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Beyond enforcement, the order directs the Secretary of Education to resume recognizing new accreditors, mandate that accreditors require institutions to use program-level outcome data (without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex), launch an experimental site to test new quality-assurance pathways under the Higher Education Act, streamline the process for institutions to change accreditors, and update the Accreditation Handbook. All actions are conditioned on applicable law and available appropriations; the order creates no individually enforceable rights.
Who it affects
Higher education accrediting bodies — especially the ABA's law school accreditor, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education — as well as the colleges, universities, law schools, and medical schools they accredit. Students whose eligibility for federal loans and Pell Grants depends on their school's accredited status are indirectly affected.
Why it matters
Accreditation determines which schools can access over $100 billion a year in federal student loans and Pell Grants. Accreditors that lose federal recognition could put their member institutions' access to that funding at risk, affecting enrolled students' ability to use federal aid to pay tuition.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
The Secretary of Education sits at the center of implementation, exercising the department's existing statutory authority over accreditor recognition. The most consequential steps — suspension or termination of specific accreditors — require prior assessment and are framed as discretionary ("shall assess," "as appropriate"). The Attorney General and Secretary of Education jointly investigate specific accrediting bodies before any enforcement action. Simultaneously, the Secretary must begin structural reforms: resuming new-accreditor recognition, mandating outcome-data requirements, and launching an experimental-site pathway under the Higher Education Act. No fixed deadlines are set, and enforcement teeth rest on existing recognition statutes, not new authority created by the order itself.
Actions and deadlines
- Hold accreditors accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination, for DEI-based accreditation standards
- Investigate and take action to terminate unlawful discrimination by law schools advanced by the ABA Council
- Assess whether to suspend or terminate the ABA Council's status as a federally recognized accrediting agency
- Investigate and take action to terminate unlawful discrimination by medical schools advanced by the LCME or ACGME
- Assess whether to suspend or terminate the LCME's or ACGME's status as a federally recognized accrediting agency
- Resume recognizing new accreditors to increase competition and accountability
- Mandate that accreditors require member institutions to use program-level student outcome data in improvement efforts
- Promptly provide accreditors with Office of Civil Rights noncompliance findings related to Title VI and Title IX
- Launch an experimental site under HEA section 487A(b) for new flexible quality-assurance pathways
- Streamline the process for institutions to change accreditors
- Update the Accreditation Handbook to improve transparency and reduce burden in the recognition process