NAVEC files Accredited Into Scarcity with the U.S. Department of Education

The case in one minute

A public standard should measure competence—not preserve one institutional model.

The American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education is the only federally recognized specialized accreditor for veterinary medical programs. NAVEC’s filing argues that the Council has not shown that its costliest institutional requirements are necessary to produce safer or more capable entry-level veterinarians.

What the report documents

The accreditation question reaches tuition, supply and access to care.

Accredited Into Scarcity compares accreditation inputs with published outcome evidence and models lower-cost nonprofit routes to the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. The models are transparent policy counterfactuals—not audited school offers—but they show why the cost of the incumbent design deserves evidence rather than deference.

The federal request

What NAVEC asked the Department to do

The filing supports the Department’s proposed shift toward accreditor independence, competition, outcome accountability and proof before restriction. It asks for seven concrete actions:

1. 01

   Open an immediate recognition-compliance review of the AVMA Council on Education without a presumption based on incumbency.

2. 02

   Terminate, suspend, or decline renewal of the Council on Education’s federal recognition.

3. 03

   Open recognition to multiple qualified veterinary accreditors without an artificial numerical cap.

4. 04

   Require a public evidence docket for Council on Education Standards 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11, and for its distance-education policy.

5. 05

   Permit controlled practitioner-led, distributive, five-year, and provisional-practice pilots with comparable outcomes and student protections.

6. 06

   Prohibit retaliation, delay, or adverse treatment when a school chooses, changes, or adds another recognized accreditor.

7. 07

   Refer the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates and Clinical Proficiency Examination double standard—and the Council on Education–International Council for Veterinary Assessment/North American Veterinary Licensing Examination structure—to the Department of Justice and appropriate state authorities.

Transition without abandonment

Reform can protect students and strengthen the safety floor.

NAVEC does not propose pulling recognition without a bridge. The report calls for protection of every currently enrolled student, existing graduate and accredited program; a defined 24-month safe harbor; expedited recognition of qualified successor accreditors; and continuity of aid and loans to the maximum extent permitted by law.

“The public question is not whether a new school looks like the incumbent model. It is whether its graduates can demonstrate the same knowledge, clinical skill, judgment and workplace performance at a lower cost.”