Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Greg Steube (R-FL) urged Congress to take action to reform the college accreditation process to combat diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements from accrediting agencies.

In a Washington Examiner op-ed Wednesday, the two Republican lawmakers, known to be among the most conservative members of Congress, argued that the college accreditation system has become politicized with diversity, equity, and inclusion requirements and that congressional action is needed to solve the issue.

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“Wokeness is destroying American universities,” Banks and Steube wrote. “Our colleges have become incapable of producing civic virtue and intellectual curiosity in their graduates. And over time, that will make those virtues increasingly rare in America.”

Banks and Steube are both members of the House Anti-Woke Caucus, which they said was launched in part because of the state of higher education. The two lawmakers, along with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), introduced the Fairness In Higher Education Accreditation Act earlier this year, which would ban accrediting agencies from requiring commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion from institutions seeking to be accredited.

The legislation was introduced after the Council for Higher Education Accreditation announced last year it would require schools to support and provide evidence of DEI initiatives in order to attain accreditation.

“The values of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ are incompatible with educational excellence,” the two lawmakers wrote. “If colleges were truly committed to diversity, they would judge students and applicants only on their individual achievements, not their race, sex, or other immutable characteristics.”

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Preempting criticisms that the introduced bill would interfere with private education, Banks and Steube noted that college accrediting agencies “are largely a creation of the federal government” and that a school is barred from receiving federal funding if it is not accredited.

“Congress is not obligated to let accreditors or the CHEA promote far-left ideologies,” they wrote. “In fact, our obligation is to protect American taxpayers from partisan abuses.”