Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of my remarks at the Senate Committee on Health, Education…”

“I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a copy of my remarks at the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on ``Reauthorizing the Higher Education Act: Evaluating Accreditation's Role in Ensuring Quality.'' There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: ACCREDITATION We're here today to discuss our system for ensuring that colleges are giving students a good education. That's called accreditation. Accreditation is a self-governing process that was created by colleges in the 1800s. The organizations they created were intended to help colleges distinguish themselves from high schools and later, to accredit one another. At this time there was no federal involvement in higher education or accreditation, and right around the end of World War II, about 5% of the population had earned a college degree. Accreditation however took on a new role in the 1950's. After the Korean War, Congress went looking for a way to ensure that the money spent for the GI Bill to help veterans go to college was being used at legitimate, quality institutions. Congress had enough sense to know they couldn't do the job of evaluating the diversity of our colleges and universities themselves so they outsourced the task to accreditation. Accreditors became, as many like to say, ``gatekeepers'' to federal funds. The Korean War G.I.…”