Is College Accreditation Constitutional?

Shannen Coffin and George Leef, director of research, James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, co-authored an article published by The Wall Street Journal, "Is College Accreditation Constitutional?" The piece discusses authority given to accreditation bodies to act as gatekeepers for federal student aid as established in the Higher Education Act. The law authorizes private organizations to establish and apply their own accreditation standards with virtually no federal oversight. The authors argue that this raises substantial constitutional questions of delegation of legislative power to private organizations.

The authors state: "Breaking the link between accreditation and federal student-aid eligibility would remove an unaccountable and increasingly meddlesome bureaucracy from the process and compel schools to focus once again on educating students."