In President Trump's war with higher education, Columbia University just became the first to face the nuclear option.

While other schools have also faced devastating funding cuts and new investigations from multiple federal agencies under Trump, the Education Department is now calling for Columbia to lose its accreditation, endangering its access to the entire federal student loan system.

Republicans are cheering Trump on, but for Columbia, which his administration accuses of violating Title VI antidiscrimination laws, the threat is existential.

"It's often called, colloquially, in higher education, a death sentence, because very few institutions could continue to enroll students, especially lower- and middle-income students, without having those students have the ability to borrow or get grants to go to those schools,” said Jon Fansmith, senior vice president of government relations and national engagement at the American Council on Education.

The college accreditation process is typically one of the most mundane aspects of higher education, involving a federally approved nonpartisan accreditor evaluating every aspect of an institution, from class selections to admission processes. But the accreditor determines if a school is allowed to have access to student aid, including federal loans and Pell Grants.

Columbia costs $71,000 a year for tuition and fees without financial aid, and that doesn't include room and board. The school notes that 24 percent of its first-year students have Pell Grants.

Without access to aid, Columbia would be inaccessible to most students in the country.

Experts doubt that the accreditor in question, the Middle States........

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