H.R. 2516 would prohibit accrediting agencies from requiring institutions of higher education to support or oppose certain political or ideological beliefs as a criterion for accreditation. The bill also would prevent those agencies from denying accreditation to an institution of higher education based on that institution’s religious mission.
Accrediting agencies are private educational associations that develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether institutions of higher education meet those criteria. Generally, institutions must meet those criteria to be accredited and thus be eligible to participate in the federal student aid programs.
In CBO’s current baseline projections, we do not expect any change in the number of schools that would be accredited with respect to the criteria that would be prohibited in the bill. On that basis, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would not affect federal spending or revenues.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Garrett Quenneville. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
