Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on The College Fix on April 10, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission.
Texas stands at a crossroads with two companion bills winding their way through the Lone Star Statehouse that aim to reform accreditation by allowing public institutions to choose from more than a dozen vetted accreditors, enhancing flexibility and competition. House Bill 1705 and its identical Senate counterpart, Senate Bill 530, aren’t about ideology, they’re about pragmatism, efficiency, and putting students first.
By expanding the definition of “recognized accrediting agency” beyond the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the two bills align Texas with federal policy, harness state resources, and ensure our higher education system serves the people, not bureaucrats. Lawmakers of all stripes should rally behind it.
In 2020, the United States Department of Education scrapped the outdated regional-national accreditor divide, a move I cheered as a blow against centralized overreach. It freed universities nationwide to choose any accreditor meeting federal standards, fostering competition and flexibility. Yet Texas clings to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges like a relic of the past.
[RELATED: Accreditation Protects the Status Quo—It’s Time for Drastic Reform]
House Bill 1705 updates our law to match this federal shift, letting public institutions pick from 16 accreditors already vetted by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in its March 2024 list—agencies like the Higher Learning Commission and Middle States Commission on Higher Education, all proven to uphold rigor. This isn’t radical; it’s common sense catching up to reality.
Reform-minded thinkers like me value efficiency, and these bills deliver. Take credit hours: At $300 per course in 2023, the hardest hit by extra requirements are working families and first-generation students—folks we claim to represent. By capping credits at an accreditor’s minimum unless academically justified, these bills cut costs and red tape.
They also smooth credit transfers, so a student from an Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges-Western Association of Schools and Colleges junior college isn’t penalized for moving to a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges university. That’s fairness, not handouts.
The bill also empowers Texas’s workforce—another reform-minded win. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s 2024 list includes the Council on Occupational Education, accrediting technical schools vital to rural communities. HB 1705 ensures credits from these programs transfer seamlessly to public institutions, speeding up degrees in fields like health care. In a state where jobs drive prosperity, this is an easy decision.
I’ve long argued for state sovereignty, and HB 1705 strengthens Texas’s hand. The federal shift let accreditors like the Western Association of Schools and Colleges expand beyond old boundaries, yet we’re still tethered to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges’ one-size-fits-all rules. By tapping the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s diverse accreditor pool, Texas can tailor its system to our needs—supporting new branches like Texas Woman’s University or online innovators via the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. This is local control, not federal dictation.
[RELATED: Accreditation-Reform Hopes for the Second Trump Administration]
Critics will cry “quality!”—a tired scare tactic. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s rigorous vetting, updated in 2024, ensures only top-tier accreditors make the cut. With oversight and academic safeguards, standards won’t slip. California juggles multiple accreditors without chaos; Texas can manage it too. Clinging to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges alone risks stagnation in a global economy where adaptability is king.
The bills check every box: lower costs, less bureaucracy, more state autonomy. But it’s bigger than that. Democrats can back its equity for students; Republicans, its fiscal responsibility; and Independents can see its nonpartisan logic. In a divided time, this bill unites us around shared values—affordable education, opportunity, and a system that works. Texas led the nation in boldness once. For our students’ sakes, we need to see this legislation passed.
Image: “Texas State Capitol building” by Daniel Mayer on Wikimedia Commons
“Take credit hours: At $300 per course in 2023”
That’s a bargain! Even at $300 per credit that would be a bargain, but I’m assuming the standard 3 credit course.
At UMass Amherst, a Massachusetts resident would pay $2,508 for that three credit course, and that’s $10,572 if you include room & board. An out-of-state student would pay $5,343.50 for the three credits, and $13,407.50 to live on campus.
See: https://www.umass.edu/bursar/tuition/undergraduate-tuition
That’s $2,208.00 or $5,043.50 more than in Texas….