Dive Brief:
- Wesley Coopersmith, a policy and legislative analyst at Generation Opportunity, is pushing for the concept of school choice to stretch from the K-12 world to higher education as a strategy for reducing student debt.
- For U.S. News & World Report, Coopersmith writes the first step would be to decouple federal financial aid from the accreditation process and give it directly to students to spend as they wish, including at “new 21st century educational programs.”
- Coopersmith advocates for massive open online courses, competency-based education, and apprenticeships, which often end with a well-paying, guaranteed job.
Dive Insight:
It is a common refrain that accreditation inhibits innovation. Some accreditors, however, have actively supported innovative teaching and learning methods, helping member institutions develop high-quality programs and get them to students. The University of Wisconsin, for example, has successfully expanded its competency-based offerings with the support of the Higher Learning Commission.
The reality is grants virtually always have strings attached. People don’t want to give away money without some level of guarantee it will be money well-spent. Tying the accreditation process to federal financial aid was a way for the government to make sure its money was only going to institutions that would give students a good education. While that system may be flawed, Congress is likely to try to fix it in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act rather than scrap it altogether.