How important is accreditation?

Forgive me if this is the wrong place to ask this question.

I've been wondering about a graduate program at a small private school. I thought it would be a nice change of pace, and that it could help me get ahead in my career.

I've visited the town and the campus, and liked them, but have discovered that the school applied for reaccreditation last year, and didn't get it! Instead, they've been put on "warning" status and have a year to retry. In case it matters, here are the areas of concern to the accrediting agency:

• Standard 7.3 (Administrative effectiveness)
• Standard 8.2.a (Student outcomes: educational programs)
• Standard 8.2.c (Student outcomes: academic and student services)
• Core Requirement 13.2 (Financial documents)
• Standard 13.3 (Financial responsibility)

Anyway, now I'm afraid of spending a lot of money to get started in a program without knowing whether or not they'll get the accreditation renewed. What happens if they don't get it? Have I wasted my time and money?

I'm also a little irritated, that there's a fairly prominent "Accreditation" link on the school's homepage, with all sorts of accreditation info, including that they are accredited. There's also a page on the site about the warning status, but it's buried so deep that if you aren't explicitly looking for it then you might not ever encounter it!