Trump targets college accreditation process in new executive order

By Betsy Klein and Samantha Waldenberg, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump took aim at the college accreditation process with a new executive order Wednesday, his latest move to exact control over America’s higher education institutions.

The order, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, targets the federal government’s process for deciding what colleges and universities can access billions of dollars in federal student loans and Pell grants – a significant source of indirect revenue for many of those institutions.

The executive order asks the secretary of education to “hold higher education accreditors accountable including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination for poor performance or violations to the federal Civil Rights Act,” a White House official told CNN ahead of the signing.

It also “directs the attorney general and the secretary of education to investigate and terminate unlawful discrimination by American higher education institutions, including law schools and medical schools,” the official said.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon pointed to the idea that universities be a “meritocracy” – a theme the White House often stresses to as they attempt to take aim at diversity, equity and inclusion in education and the workforce.

The action was spearheaded by Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, the White House official said, as part of ongoing efforts by deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and others to advance the president’s agenda on higher education.

Trump signed several other executive orders on Wednesday afternoon aimed at restructuring and reconfiguring the Education Department the week after his administration announced a sweeping $2.2 billion funding freeze on Harvard University, setting up a major clash over academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight.

One action aimed to ensure schools train students in the use of artificial intelligence.

“That’s a big deal,” Trump said while signing the order. “We have literally trillions of dollars being invested in AI,” he added.

The executive order ensures that institutions properly train children and young Americans in AI tools so that they can be competitive in the economy as AI becomes more dominant, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said ahead of the signing ceremony.

Another order “charges” departments and agencies across Trump’s administration with “enforcing the laws on the books with respect to foreign gifts to American universities.” Scharf said those laws require “certain disclosures of universities” that accept large foreign gifts, which haven’t been “effectively enforced.”

The president also signed an order establishing a White House initiative on historically Black colleges and universities. During the president’s first term, relationships with HBCUs were frayed at times and Trump’s own views on funding the institutions were inconsistent.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.

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