Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that Florida will partner with five out-of-state university systems to create a new college accreditation board, challenging higher education’s “woke cartels.”
DeSantis’s comments came at a Florida Atlantic University press conference, where he revealed his plans for the new Commission for Public Higher Education.
He claimed that this new accreditor will focus on student efficiency, outcomes, and “pursuing truth,” values DeSantis argues are playing “second fiddle” under the current system.
“We will introduce a new accreditation system…[That will] upend the monopoly of woke accreditation cartels,” DeSantis said Thursday. “Who are these accreditors? Did you elect these accreditors to anything?”
The new consortium, subject to approval from the U.S. Department of Education, will comprise university systems from Florida, the University of North Carolina, the University of Georgia, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee, and Texas A&M University.
DeSantis’s new anti-woke move is only the latest in his push to overhaul the state’s university system. DeSantis led the 2023 effort to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education and touted how he transformed New College, once a small liberal arts school, into the “Hillsdale of the South.”
This year, three of the four most recent university presidents installed statewide have been former GOP lawmakers tied to the governor. The fourth, Marva Johnson at Florida A&M University, is a DeSantis ally.
What is Accreditation, and Why is DeSantis Creating a New Board?
To be accredited, colleges or universities must be evaluated by a DOE-approved board to have met certain education standards for quality and effectiveness.
For Florida, that’s the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges—an agency so maligned by DeSantis that he approved a 2022 law requiring state colleges and universities to switch accreditors.
When the U.S. Education Department appeared to “slow walk” Florida’s new accreditation requests, DeSantis sued, POLITICO reported. That suit was later dismissed.
But that was under President Joe Biden’s administration.
Now, DeSantis has an ally in President Donald Trump, who’s followed the Florida playbook on pressuring for the elimination of DEI and cracking down on schools breaking with his administration’s higher education policy.
When running for office, Trump promised to “fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”
“If your institution gets approved by [the Commission for Public Higher Education], it's valid,” DeSantis said Thursday.
