The Accreditation for College Excellence Act of 2025 would prohibit education accreditors from pushing an educational institution to implement “partisan, political, or ideological viewpoints” in order to receive Higher Education Act funding or accreditation. The bill would also protect religious institutions’ ability to maintain their code of conduct and adherence to religious practices.
“For too long, activist accreditors have weaponized the accreditation process to push far-left ideology, pressuring colleges to submit to ideological tests that have nothing to do with education,” Owens said in a statement. “The result: DEI mandates, CRT programs, and a culture that divides students by race instead of uniting them through merit. The ACE Act puts an end to this nonsense and ensures that institutions of higher education focus on academic standards—not politics.”
Owens named at least five medical schools — including the University of California, Davis; LSU Health Shreveport; the University of Minnesota; Oregon Health and Science University; and the University of North Carolina — enacting DEI and anti-racism programs, saying they faced pressure from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education.
During the Biden administration, at least a dozen educational organizations enacted accreditation standards that stipulated higher education institutions implementing DEI standards.
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which represents 6,000 institutions, put into effect its requirement of DEI mandates on Jan. 1, 2022.
“There were sort of individualistic expectations, but without standards to prescribe a course of action, it was left up the accreditors as to how they would manifest DEI, not only in their own organizations, but with their institutions,” CHEA President Cynthia Jackson-Hammond told Insight into Academia in March 2022. “Now, when you are recognized by CHEA, the expectation is that you manifest aspects of DEI and that you have evidence to that effect.”
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO KEY EDUCATION DEPARTMENT PROGRAMS IF TRUMP SHUTS IT DOWN
President Donald Trump’s March 20 executive order prohibits any federal funding to go to institutions that “advance DEI or gender ideology,” leading many educational institutions to strip themselves of DEI.
“President Trump’s executive order was a critical step to keep DEI out of America’s classrooms—but a Democrat administration could bring back this divisiveness with the stroke of a pen,” Burgess said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “The ACE Act slams that door shut, ending political extortion in higher education, and putting merit—not ideology—back at the center of academics and accreditation.”
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
