Executive Order 14279 aims to overhaul the higher education accreditation system, which the order characterizes as dysfunctional and failing in its responsibility to ensure quality education. The order asserts that accreditors have misused their authority as gatekeepers to over $100 billion in federal student aid by approving institutions with low graduation rates (noting a 64% six-year rate in 2020) and programs with negative returns on investment. According to the order, accreditors have improperly focused on promoting what it terms as "discriminatory ideology" through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards rather than prioritizing student outcomes and educational quality.
The executive order establishes specific mechanisms to address these perceived issues, directing the Secretary of Education to hold accreditors accountable through monitoring, suspension, or termination of recognition if they require institutions to engage in what the order describes as unlawful discrimination through DEI initiatives. It specifically targets accreditation bodies for law schools (the American Bar Association's Council) and medical education programs (the Liaison Committee on Medical Education and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education), directing the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to investigate and potentially terminate their accreditor status. The order also calls for resuming recognition of new accreditors to increase competition and mandating that accreditors require member institutions to use program-level student outcome data without reference to race, ethnicity, or sex.
Implementation responsibilities fall primarily to the Secretary of Education, who is directed to launch an experimental site to establish new flexible quality assurance pathways for higher education institutions, increase consistency in the accreditor review process, streamline the process for institutions to change accreditors, and update the Accreditation Handbook. The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services in medical education cases, is tasked with investigating and taking action against what the order characterizes as unlawful discrimination. The order frames these changes as necessary to refocus accreditation on delivering "high-quality, high-value academic programs at a reasonable price" and to promote "intellectual diversity" among faculty, while prohibiting practices that lead to credential inflation that increases costs for students.