Most U.S. college students go to college in search of economic safety and independence. Unfortunately, existing U.S. colleges often fail to produce economic mobility for their students, and prevailing policy efforts to improve existing colleges are limited in their impact.
A report from the American Enterprise Institute contends that a promising strategy for improving the quality of U.S. colleges, particularly their ability to produce economic mobility for students, is to enable the formation of new nonprofit colleges that can bring design innovation, improved outcomes, and competition to the sector.
To form in substantial numbers, the report says colleges need a “new breed” of college accreditor, one that—in contrast to current accreditors, which work almost exclusively with existing colleges—focuses on vetting, approving, and regulating startup colleges. In addition, the report calls on leadership at the federal level to invest political capital and resources in forming these new college accreditors.