How can the Ed Department better review accreditors?

The U.S. Department of Education should go "beyond a box-checking exercise" when assessing whether accreditors are adequately doing their jobs, contends a new report from the Center for American Progress (CAP). Antoinette Flores, associate director for postsecondary education at the left-leaning CAP, writes that the Ed Department needs to spend more time assessing accreditors that oversee the largest share of federal funds and conduct more open-ended investigations.
The report comes as the Ed Department is rewriting the regulations around accreditation that would ease its review of accreditors. Some accreditors have come under fire after the schools they oversaw left students with unmanageable debt or closed suddenly, leaving those enrolled scrambling to figure where — or if — they should finish their education. Yet a 2018 audit conducted by the Ed Department's internal watchdog found the agency was not conducting consistent reviews or monitoring accreditors to ensure they were fulfilling their responsibilities, the report noted.