11. Department of Education · Minor · Needs Congress
Repeal the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship accreditation requirements
Printed page 358 11. Department of Education
“Although the accreditation regulations should be removed entirely by Congress, in the meantime, the next President should issue an executive order expanding the list of allowable accreditors.”
What has happened
- Not started
Congress has not removed the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship accreditation requirement. The one bill on point, the SOAR Permanent Authorization Act (H.R. 954), would *widen* rather than remove it — amending SOAR Act §3007(a)(5)(A)(i)(I) so that a participating school may be "fully accredited by an accrediting body with jurisdiction in the District of Columbia or that is recognized by the Student and Visitor Exchange English Language Program administered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement" — and it was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on 2025-02-04 with no further action. Introduction is not a rung (playbook §3b), and widening a requirement is not removing it (§3b, progress is measured on this ask).
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- A search of the titles of the bills we keep and search for “SOAR”, “Scholarships for Opportunity” and “District of Columbia” finds H.R. 954 the only education measure among ~40 District of Columbia bills, and it is the same bill the Mandate’s “in the meantime” sentence anticipates.
- The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 funds the program without amending §3007.
- Action
- repeal
- Object
- D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program accreditation requirements
- ID
- 908