CCE Attacks Opposition for Political Action

In a May 31, 2012 Memo released on their website the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) calls political activity by those who oppose them in the current accreditation debate “irresponsible”.

Asserting that they follow the regulations established by the United States Secretary of Education and that they have the interests of chiropractic students in mind, the CCE points to specific actions by the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) that involved requesting that their membership and the chiropractic community at large contact their elected representatives and relate their concerns regarding the recent decision by the Assistant Secretary of Education.     

In a letter dated March 15, 2012 to the Council on Chiropractic Education, the Assistant Secretary of the United States Department of Education, Eduardo M. Ochoa, pulled the rug out from under the conservative faction of the chiropractic profession that had worked so hard to bring the actions of the CCE to light.

In December 2011 the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) had found the CCE to be in violation of 43 Federal Recognition Criteria including a violation of 34 C.F.R. 602.13 dealing with the wide acceptance of the agency’s standards, policies, procedures and decisions and to told them to address how the agency’s standards advance quality in chiropractic education.
In a shocking move the Assistant Secretary told the CCE:

"I disagree with NACIQI’s concern about lack of wide acceptance of the agency’s standards in the field. The dissenting voices in my judgment are a small minority within the profession. Generally, I agree with the arguments presented by the agency in this regard. Accordingly, I am not requiring that CCE address 34 C.F.R. 602.13, or how the agency’s standards advance quality in chiropractic education, in its compliance report.”

Ochoa noted that the recommendations of the Department staff and of NACIQI differed and that he had received written comments from the CCE that opposed NACIQI’s additional recommendation. Ochoa told the CCE:

“I disagree with NACIQI’s concern about lack of wide acceptance of the agency’s standards in the field. The dissenting voices in my judgment are a small minority within the profession. Generally, I agree with the arguments presented by the agency in this regard. Accordingly, I am not requiring that CCE address 34 C.F.R 602.13, or how the agency’s standards advance quality in chiropractic education, in its compliance report.”       

It is widely believed that the CCE, perhaps in concert with the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), lobbied the Assistant Secretary in order to get the 43rd violation removed.  The efforts on the part of the conservative, traditional factions of the profession to contact elected representatives came after Ochoa refused to meet with these groups. The purpose of the requested meetings was so they could better understand Ochoa’s reasoning for believing that these groups were simply a minority and more so, how the Secretary of Education under an Obama Administration could simply push aside minority views – even if they were a minority.