Trump Admin Moves to Strip ABA of Law School Accreditation Power

Trump Admin Moves to Strip ABA of Law School Accreditation Power

The left has had a stranglehold on everything in education for decades. This is a good thing.

The College Fix reports:

Trump administration may end bar association’s control over law schools

The American Bar Association, which for many years was the lone accreditor of law schools in the U.S., may lose that authority under the Trump administration.

Assistant Secretary of Education David Barker told the Wall Street Journal late last week that the Department of Education “is taking the first step toward removing the ABA’s authority to accredit law schools.” Accreditation is tied to federal funding, including student grants and loans.

Among other things, the Trump administration has a problem with the bar association’s requirement that law schools adhere to certain diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

The DEI rule, Standard 206, is currently on hold, and the bar association has a vote scheduled for September on whether to permanently repeal it, Law.com reports.

However, conservatives continue to express concerns about the legal organization’s nearly exclusive power to accredit law schools coupled with its progressive politics.

“We have said many times that accreditation, in general, operates like a cartel,” Barker told the newspaper. “When there’s no competition, accreditors feel free to inject their own political preferences, their own ideologies into the work that they do.”

The Education Department’s actions are part of a larger report that claims the “ABA’s accreditation wing isn’t sufficiently independent of its profession,” the Wall Street Journal reports:

Melissa Hart, the chair of the ABA’s Accreditation Council, said the council is confident it complies with the federal laws and the Education Department’s requirements.

“As a national accrediting body for American law schools, we remain focused on ensuring quality legal education that produces competent, ethical attorneys who are eligible for licensure,” she said.

“The outcomes produced by Council-accredited law schools are unmatched, and we continue the important work of accrediting law schools as our recognition process proceeds,” Hart said.

Any final decision to reject the ABA is two steps and several months away; the outcome isn’t certain. The Education Department’s initial recommendation goes next to a panel that reviews accreditors, which then makes a recommendation to Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent.

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