For-Profit-College Fiasco: Why a Watchdog Needs a Watchdog (NYT)

     Last year, the for-profit Corinthian Colleges chain collapsed under the weight of government investigations and allegations of fraud. Its demise left tens of thousands of Corinthian students with loans that will ultimately cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars to forgive.
     This week, the private accrediting group that allowed Corinthian to stay open for business will face its own existential threat, when federal regulators decide whether to shut it down. That decision will go a long way toward determining whether education companies will continue to have free rein to profit from government financial aid programs.
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     Considering the scale of what went wrong for many students enrolled in ACICS-accredited colleges, it’s hard to see how to fix things without government action. If the government’s committee does intervene, it will need to establish standards for what constitutes “bad enough” in college accreditation — and, thus, in colleges themselves.
     Many accreditors and colleges would probably prefer this didn’t happen. But given the severity of the problem, the committee may have no choice.

Scorecard for Accreditors (IHE)

     The Education Department has created new data reports on the performance of accrediting agencies, using measures such as graduation and loan repayment rates at colleges the agencies oversee.