WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a rapid-fire week of moves touching everything from college accreditation to student loans, the U.S. Department of Education signaled it intends to remake the rules that govern higher education financing and oversight while escalating enforcement actions tied to Title IX and student privacy disputes.
On Monday, January 26, the department said it plans to convene a negotiated rulemaking committee called Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization, or AIM, aimed at rewriting federal accreditation regulations and the way the secretary recognizes accreditors. The department said the effort is designed to lower costs and curb “credential inflation,” limit the influence of related trade associations, and shift quality assurance toward data-driven student outcomes. The announcement tied the initiative to Executive Order 14279, which the administration says lays out its accreditation overhaul agenda.
The department said nominations for negotiators are due by Wednesday, February 26, and the committee is expected to meet for two five-day sessions in April and May.
That same day, Education Department civil rights officials and their counterparts at the Department of Health and Human Services said they are referring Minnesota’s Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League to the Justice Department for enforcement action after concluding the state has refused to comply with Title IX. The agencies said the case stems from findings issued September 30, 2025, and warned the referral could lead to proceedings that may include termination of federal funding from the two departments.
On Tuesday, January 27, as the administration promoted National School Choice Week, the Education Department and Treasury Department released a joint fact sheet on an “Education Freedom Tax Credit” the release said was created by the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. The fact sheet said taxpayers could receive a credit of up to $1,700 for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, with scholarships usable for a wide range of K-12 education expenses, including tuition and tutoring. The department said 23 states had opted in as of that day.
By Wednesday, January 28, the department’s Office for Civil Rights said it found San José State University in violation of Title IX, alleging the university’s policies allowed males to compete in women’s sports and access female-only facilities, denying women equal educational opportunities. OCR said it offered the university a proposed resolution agreement that would require biology-based definitions of “male” and “female,” separation of sports and intimate facilities by biological sex, and steps including restoration of athletic records and individualized apologies to affected athletes.
Also on Wednesday, the department’s Student Privacy Policy Office said it found the California Department of Education in continued violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, arguing state-directed pressure has pushed districts to conceal information about students’ “gender identity” from parents and to treat “gender support plans” as outside records accessible under federal law. The department outlined steps it said California could take to resolve the findings, including notifying districts that such plans are education records subject to parental inspection upon request.
The blitz continued Thursday, January 29, with the department issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that it said aims to reduce higher education costs and simplify federal student loan repayment. The proposal, described as part of implementing changes tied to the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, would eliminate the Grad PLUS program for new borrowers and impose new annual and aggregate caps for graduate and professional borrowing, while consolidating repayment choices into a tiered standard plan and a new income-driven option the department calls a Repayment Assistance Plan.
The department said the proposed rule would be open for public comment for 30 days and that comments must be submitted through Regulations.gov by Monday, March 2. The Federal Register posting for the proposal is available at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2026-01912/reimagining-and-improving-student-education.
Taken together, the announcements map an aggressive strategy: restructure the gatekeeping system that determines which colleges can access federal aid through accreditation changes; tighten the rules of the federal loan pipeline and repayment menu; expand incentives for K-12 school choice via a national tax credit mechanism; and press high-profile civil rights and privacy fights into enforcement posture with states and universities in the crosshairs.
The Education Freedom Tax Credit fact sheet is available at https://www.ed.gov/media/document/education-freedom-tax-credit-fact-sheet-113147.pdf.
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