Democratic lawmakers want to hold colleges accountable for unmanageable student-loan burdens.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Dick Durbin are reintroducing the Accreditation Reform and Enhanced Accountability Act. It's aimed at strengthening accountability in the system that determines whether schools can receive federal aid for students.
The bill would require the Department of Education to establish guidelines for evaluating colleges, including student-loan repayment outcomes and how much debt students take out postgrad compared to their earnings, according to a fact sheet on the legislation first viewed by Business Insider.
The Biden administration found that, between 2021 and 2024, 1.7 million student-loan borrowers were defrauded by accredited schools, which lawmakers say bolsters the need for improved accreditation measures.
The bill would also require accreditors to respond quickly to state and federal investigations regarding fraud or misconduct at schools and to increase transparency around accreditation decisions.
"We need to overhaul our accreditation system to make sure students get an education that will improve their lives, not leave them jobless and buried in debt," Warren said in a statement.
This legislation comes after the Education Department advanced its proposal to change the accreditation system, including by requiring accreditors to ensure that schools uphold free speech protections on campuses. It drew criticism from some negotiators who argued that First Amendment issues do not fall within an accreditor's purview.
Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a statement that the measures build on the department's goals of "lowering costs, simplifying repayment, connecting education to workforce needs, strengthening accountability, and restoring confidence in our accreditation system."
Following staffing cuts at the Department of Education, lawmakers have been pushing for increased oversight over the student-loan repayment system. A recent report from the Office of the Inspector General found that some of the offices hardest hit by cuts were those that collected financial aid data on schools participating in federal student aid programs.
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