Ed chief accused of 'playing hardball' with higher ed accreditation
by Jim Brown
February 27, 2007
(OneNewsNow.com) - - The head of a conservative online university is opposing efforts by Education Secretary Margaret Spelling to change federal rules that govern college and university accreditation.Secretary Spellings has declared that one of the most important accrediting associations for conservative colleges may be forced not to accredit new institutions for a period of six months. If the association does not meet Education Department standards within that time frame, it could lose its charter. It is all part of the Department's campaign to carry out recommendations of the Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education.
Dr. Richard Bishirjian, the president of Denver-based Yorktown University, says Spellings is pushing the wrong testing standards. "What she's doing is [taking] national testing standards that were essentially developed for vocational schools and applying them to all the colleges and universities in America," says Bishirjian.
And that is a problem, he explains "because a lot of us -- the small, liberal arts colleges -- teach subjects like philosophy, theology, [and] religious studies that simply don't fit these tests. So we're trying to work things up, but [Spelling is] playing hardball .... "
Members of Congress and school officials have questioned whether the Education Department has the legal authority to enact changes to federal accreditation rules.
