House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (NY) has introduced legislation to prohibit accreditors from compelling institutions to adopt race- or sex-based quotas, instead requiring them to consider a school’s commitment to academic freedom and free speech foremost.
The bill, introduced Wednesday and dubbed the Fairness in Higher Education Accreditation Act, is a companion to Sen. Jim Banks’ (R-IN) version in the Senate, introduced in May.
If passed, the legislation would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order from April, called “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education.”
Key provisions of Stefanik’s bill include a mandate for accreditors to respect institutions’ commitment to free speech, academic freedom, and First Amendment protections and a ban on identity-based quotas for students and staff.
The bill aims to strengthen the autonomy of educational institutions so they do not fear losing accreditation. Stefanik’s office told Breitbart News that it will also act as a shield for faith-based institutions from mandates that conflict with their religious beliefs.
The act would also grant colleges the right to take legal action against accreditors that act in violation of the mandates.
“Accreditors should not have the tools to coerce colleges into using racial or sex-based quotas as a condition of accreditation. Academic quality should be based on merit and not woke accreditation elites who have a Far Left ideology at odds with freedom of thought,” Stefanik told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement.
Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC), a cosponsor of the bill, added, “In the golden age of common sense, the Fairness in Higher Education Accreditation Act presents a prime opportunity to correct the path of our higher education institutions, which have lost their way in recent years.”
“When we commit our universities to excellence over DEI, our country is better for it,” he explained. “I’m proud to stand with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Senator Jim Banks in our country’s efforts to rid our universities of wokeness.”
Trump’s executive order slammed accreditors for adopting “unlawfully discriminatory practices,” such as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) quotas, as a “formal standard of accreditation.”
The president named the American Bar Association’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, which is the sole federally recognized accreditor for juris doctor programs, as an example of an accreditor that has required law schools to “demonstrate by concrete action a commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, which is the only federally recognized body that accredits doctor of medicine degree programs, also requires that an institution “engage in ongoing, systematic, and focused recruitment and retention activities, to achieve mission-appropriate diversity outcomes among its students.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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