Education Department Agenda Would Put Accreditors in Charge of Campus Speech Policies

The Education Department released a regulatory agenda on July 3, 2026, setting out its rulemaking timeline for the coming year. The department said it plans to issue a proposed accreditation rule in July that would make it easier for new accrediting bodies to form and for colleges to switch accreditors, and would expand accreditors' duties to include oversight of campus policies on free speech and intellectual diversity. The same month it expects to propose regulations to "streamline the process" for cutting off federal financial aid to colleges it finds violated civil rights laws. The agenda also targets the 90/10 rule, which requires for-profit colleges to draw at least 10 percent of revenue from non-federal sources, on the ground that current provisions give public and nonprofit institutions "a competitive advantage," and, in August, regulations on race-conscious programs under Title VI.

Accreditation is the gatekeeper for federal student aid. Assigning accreditors a role in policing campus speech policies would route a contested political question through a mechanism that controls institutional access to federal money, and the Title VI and aid-termination items would speed the department's ability to defund institutions it deems noncompliant.

These are planned rulemakings, not final rules. Each proposed rule would go through notice and comment, and several are slated for negotiated rulemaking.