Scott Statement on Material Errors in Education Department’s Recommendation to Recognize Troubled College Accreditor
WASHINGTON – Ranking Member Bobby Scott (VA-03) issued the statement in response to news reports revealing the Department of Education’s recommendation to grant the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) another year as a recognized accreditor mischaracterized input from respected accrediting agencies.
“The inaccuracies in Ms. Auer Jones’s report recommending recognition for the Accrediting Council of Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) calls into question the legitimacy of the recommendation.
“Wide acceptance by peers in higher education is a basic requirement for recognition – a requirement that Department staff recently determined ACICS had not met. Her original claim that ACICS has the support of nine respected accrediting agencies is not just an ‘error in the editing process,’ it is a substantive error regarding essential qualifications for recognition. Therefore, a key part of the basis for Ms. Auer Jones’s reversal of the Department’s prior determination is apparently false.
“ACICS submitted thousands of pages of documents to support its case, but the Department has refused to make those documents available to the public. This inaccurate claim is evidence of the need for greater transparency. I am calling on the Department of Education to immediately release all relevant documents concerning ACICS recognition.”
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