Accreditation Order Is Really About Controlling What’s Taught
Trump’s executive action targeting the process universities undergo to qualify for federal financial aid is meant to push conservatives’ academic agenda.
It’s about pushing propaganda, not quality education.
Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump promised a “secret weapon” in his new executive order on university accreditation. Sure enough, it’s there, hiding in plain sight. The order includes an as-yet-unnoticed directive to the Department of Education to pressure the accreditors to push universities “to prioritize intellectual diversity amongst faculty.” In Trump-speak, that means hiring professors who teach what he and his followers believe to be true, regardless of what actual scholars might have demonstrated.
It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment for the government to tell universities who must be hired to teach based on their substantive views. The administration is presently trying to do that to Harvard University, my employer, cutting federal grants unless the university agrees to an external auditor who would review all departments and programs for “viewpoint diversity.” Harvard has appropriately made this outrageous violation of free speech a cornerstone of its lawsuit against the Trump administration.