USDE Does Away With "Regional" (and "National") Accreditation Divisions

[DeanLewis]

As per a letter penned by the US Department of Education's Office of the Undersecretary on February 26th 2020, and published on the SACS website, the USDE has made a point to undo discrimination with regards to "Nationally" vs "Regionally" accredited programs and institutions: 



https://sacscoc.org/app/uploads/2020/03/....26.19.pdf

[jsd]

It'd be interesting if state level and institutional level policy follows suit, but I wouldn't count on it.

[rachel83az]

It looks like they have no choice? But they'll probably find other ways to discriminate.

[jsd]

hrm, i think you're right. wording does seem to imply states HAVE to update their state laws.

my guess is there's about to be a bunch of new programmatic accreditors setup, and now instead of needing an RA degree for certain licensure and protected job titles, states will deem that you'll need specific programmatic accreditation.

[ARhead]

Now why would they do that?.......hmmmmm......Oh yeah Betsy Devos runs the show over there. Betsy's whole mission in life is to tear down public education with the endgame being total privatization of the school system. With an extreme evangelical bent. This would seem a reasonable decision with that being the goal.

[dfrecore]

Now why would they do that?.......hmmmmm......Oh yeah Betsy Devos runs the show over there. Betsy's whole mission in life is to tear down public education with the endgame being total privatization of the school system. With an extreme evangelical bent. This would seem a reasonable decision with that being the goal.

As a former homeschooler, I like her stances.  I totally disagree on what you're saying about the rest though.  Sounds very conspiracy-theory.

[ARhead]

I'm happy you like her stances, as her policies affect your fellow citizens, not mine. As for the rest, there is nothing conspiratorial about what I said, whatsoever. Either a.) one knows these things b.) one supports the most extreme republican policies but denies their existence or c.) they are living under a rock or just got out of a coma.

As the saying goes, "you are what your record says you are". That is Betsy's record. Now you can disagree with that, but that would be akin to flat earthers disagreeing with the earth being round. I could spend an hour digging up lots of links for you, but then that may not be a good use of my time since you never know who the person on the other end of the screen is. For all I know you have a recurring credit card donation to Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland and maybe the Heritage Foundation. In which case of course you would LOVE Betsy's policies and stance. The only reason she is in her position is because she paid for it, not because she has any experience whatsoever that would show she is fit to be in her position. You may want to spend a few minutes educating yourself on who you are supporting. If you like their record, that's great.

I could do much better with more time but 2 minutes found a timeline of the great work she has done so far with some links to news stories:
https://educationvotes.nea.org/2019/03/22/devos/

[freeloader]

“My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican Party....We do expect something in return. We expect a return on our investment.”
—Betsy DeVos

[rachel83az]

I'm not convinced that doing away with RA/NA distinctions is a bad idea in and of itself. It's always seemed so arbitrary to me. But the way that it's implemented is likely to cause issues in the future, especially as colleges/universities try to figure out how to keep the "unwashed masses" from transferring in while still allowing the elite to do so. In the long run, it's even possible that this will stop colleges from allowing any transfer credits at all. But who knows.

[Life Long Learning]

I support it.  Too much bureaucracy in the US Education system.   I have seen first-hand the sad discrimination with regards to RA vs NA.  

I like how the Maine University system is demanding ONE accreditation NOT 7.