Dive Brief:

• A senator from Utah is calling for higher education reform and labeling the accreditation and federal loan system a "higher education cartel."
• Sen. Mike Lee says the current system protects "incumbent colleges from innovative competitors."
• His bill would amend federal law to allow states to create parallel accreditation systems, though he said colleges would be able to keep their current accreditors if they wished.

Dive Insight:

While having 50 different accreditation schemes and standards is a federalist's dream and may stoke some innovation, it's not clear this is a task that state governments want to take on. It could be more trouble than Lee anticipates.