Obama Targets College Accreditors – WSJ (But Not Sen. Alexander)

The Obama administration on Friday plans to announce executive actions to lift standards and increase transparency at the self-policing groups that accredit colleges.

Source: Obama Targets College Accreditors – WSJ

Of course, Sen. Alexander rejects the idea.

This is from a column he wrote in this paper.

“…in one year Vanderbilt University spent a startling $150 million complying with federal rules and regulations governing higher education…”

Here is the rest of the story.

  • That number “…is inflated by costs unrelated to those regulations…including “…costs of regulation that would apply to any employer…”
  • “the federal government reimburses ..as much as 20 percent of the federal-compliance expenses the analysis identified”
  • “$117 million of its regulatory costs were associated with the expenses of its vast research enterprise” [Not “higher education.]
  • “$14 million was spent complying with rules on antidiscrimination, immigration, and other issues”
  • “Vanderbilt said the $14 million was attributable to “higher education” regulations but also acknowledged that $9 million of that was for..accreditation

(This is from a report by the Chron. of Higher Ed. A link is on my blog.)

See my blog for the whole story.