The Accreditation Racket: How to Return Standards to College Accreditation
2nd June 2026
On the campaign trail, then-candidate Donald Trump called college accreditation a “secret weapon” that he planned to use in his efforts to reform universities.
Since then, the mainstream media, including USA Today and Bloomberg, along with a left-leaning interest group representing faculty, the American Association of University Professors, responded to the president’s commentary, expressing surprise that reform was even needed for the quality-assurance guarantees that postsecondary accreditors provide to universities.
Yet therein lies the problem: College accreditors have decidedly not guaranteed quality and routinely bury colleges in paperwork. Accreditors have foisted ideological conformity on colleges and universities through the accrediting process, becoming gatekeepers over the kinds of courses and ideas allowed in the halls of academic buildings.
A British-style university (degree in three years, focus on classics and mathematics) could not get accredited in the U.S. today.