The governor claims that current agencies force institutions to bend over themselves to obtain accreditation, thus Florida, along with other southern states, is creating a new university accrediting commission.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, and university officials from Texas and South Carolina announced Thursday at a news conference at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton that the states are creating a Commission for Public Higher Education.
By advocating legislation to prohibit public spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion and reshaping state higher education institutions to be more conservative, DeSantis has placed a strong emphasis on woke views.
Accrediting organizations may demand a university’s adherence to those principles or other standards in order for it to be accepted, he added, impeding his efforts in higher education.
According to DeSantis, sometimes you have to go two or three levels down in order to positively shape organizations. Additionally, we have long recognized this accrediting cartel as a problem.
In an effort to break the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels, Florida is forming a commission with the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee, and Texas A&M University.
For instance, SB 266 from 2023, which prohibited state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion but permitted DEI programs to continue if necessary to keep accreditation, demonstrates the layers.
Former LSAT prep company owner DeSantis claimed that during the awakened age, institutions were truly contaminated by ideology and were prioritizing ideology over the search for the truth during COVID.
DeSantis acknowledged that the commission must fulfill federal requirements before the U.S. Department of Education can authorize it, but he did not provide a date for when the commission will be operational.
We’re setting it up again. “I think U.S. DOE wants to be quick on this,” DeSantis said, adding that “you kind of have to go and actually do it for, you know, some period of time.”
DeSantis claimed that soon after Trump’s election victory, he gave Rodrigues a shove.
“I think this is going to make a big big difference,” DeSantis said, adding that if it is established during the Trump administration, it will be nearly impossible for a future federal administration to try to upend the apple cart. “We didn’t really have the prospects of launching anything like this successfully during the Biden years, but it’s a new day,” he said.
A workgroup established by the State University System of Florida as recently as 2020, the year following DeSantis’s inauguration, came to the conclusion in its final report that the university’s Board of Governors is making a firm and unambiguous commitment to promoting and advancing diversity, racial and gender equity, and inclusion.
In order to encourage universities to seek accreditation from accreditors approved by the State Board of Education or Board of Governors, Florida lawmakers enacted SB 7044 in 2022, and DeSantis signed it.
According to DeSantis, practically every state in our region will support this.
Even though all of those states have made progress in higher education, he added, it has been more challenging when the certification cartel is constantly pecking at you. Now, I believe that everything will go really, really smoothly.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges includes Florida and other southern state universities as members. DeSantis and Rodrigues made fun of SACSCOC, claiming that Florida colleges have issues with the accrediting body and that the performance of its member schools has not been particularly good.
The Commission for Public Higher Education will provide an accreditation methodology that eliminates needless financial burdens and ideological bias in favor of academic achievement and student success. According to Rodrigues, these changes will help our teachers, students, and the diligent taxpayers who support our public systems.
As they undergo a stringent certification procedure, we welcome any new accreditor, SACSCOC said in an email statement to the Phoenix. Since accreditation is essential to high-quality education, accreditors are subject to strict requirements and must undergo evaluations.
Regarding SACSCOC, the group stated that it presently accredits universities that serve the greatest number of students in the nation (around 5 million). In order to guarantee and enhance a high standard of accreditation that takes into account the requirements of students, our institutions, and the workforce, we will collaborate with our partner institutions.
According to DeSantis, Florida law schools shouldn’t have to compromise in order to obtain accreditation from the American Bar Association, which he claimed requires explicit DEI compliance as a requirement of accreditation and has since evolved into a far-left activist organization. Until at least 2026, the association has suspended the DEI standard.
According to the State University System, the commission will develop a first-of-its-kind accreditation model for public higher education institutions that prioritize academic excellence, student outcomes, and achievement while providing high-quality, effective services.
Adam Hasner, the president of Florida Atlantic University, who was recently appointed to the role after students worried he would politicize it, stated, “Together, we are leaving behind the legacy systems and failed institutions of the past while charting a new course in higher education that puts student success at the forefront of everything that we do.”
Following DeSantis’ announcement, the Florida Education Association and United Faculty of Florida jointly issued a statement expressing their strong opposition to the action, arguing that it directly jeopardizes the academic legitimacy, independence, and integrity of the state’s higher education system.
According to a news release from UFF President Teresa M. Hodge, accreditation is important because it is the foundation of shared governance, academic freedom, and public confidence in the caliber of our institutions.
Academic freedom seems to be less important to this proposed governmental accreditor than political agendas. It appears to be the state’s most recent attempt to impose top-down control over what students and instructors are permitted to learn.
The FEA’s president, Andrew Spar, expressed worry about the potential impact of a new accreditor on teacher preparation programs.
According to Spar, the best learning occurs when teachers are allowed to teach and students are free to learn, not when political pressures influence curricular choices.
Florida’s Jay Waagmeester The Phoenix
