Accounting profession ‘essential’ to economic stability, coalition says

The accounting profession is “an essential part of our nation’s economic stability” and shouldn’t be excluded from a Department of Education list designating professional degree programs, according to a letter signed by the AICPA and other accounting organizations.

The letter, sent Monday to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, said that the Department of Education’s recent draft regulation would be detrimental to the profession.

“Excluding accounting would reduce graduate loan eligibility and related funding for students preparing to enter a licensed profession that safeguards financial transparency, compliance, and the public interest,” the letter said.

Proposed regulation from the Department of Education would exclude accounting programs from a professional degree designation. The definitions of professional degree programs help determine education loan eligibility.

The accounting organizations said in the letter that they appreciated the Department of Education’s “broader effort to align lending with workforce needs and respectfully request that accounting programs be expressly included in the professional degree designation in the proposed rule.”

The accounting organizations signing the letter in addition to the AICPA are AGA, formerly the Association of Government Accountants; the American Accounting Association; the Center for Audit Quality; Financial Executives International; Institute of Internal Auditors; NABA, Inc. (formerly the National Association of Black Accountants); the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy; and the National Council of Philippine American Canadian Accountants.

Before Thanksgiving, the AICPA and state CPA societies jointly issued a news release that said they “strongly oppose any proposal that fails to recognize accounting as a professional degree program.”

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Neil Amato at Neil.Amato@aicpa-cima.com.