Six public university systems have formed a new academic accreditation agency, with the intention of serving as an alternative to what some consider a “woke” establishment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, announced the formation of a new accrediting organization, known as the Commission for Public Higher Education, a consortium of the public university systems from six states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
The commission will place a greater focus on student outcomes and academic quality and eschew ideological biases that allegedly underpin other accreditation agencies.
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DeSantis stated during a gathering at Florida Atlantic University that the commission “will upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels, and it will provide institutions with an alternative that focuses on student achievement, rather than the ideological fads that have so permeated those accrediting bodies over the years.”
“We care about student achievement; we care about measurable outcomes; we care about efficiency; we care about pursuing truth; we care about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic,” he added.
The new body is working with the U.S. Department of Education to obtain federal approval, DeSantis said, with the hope that more states will join in the near future.
“We need these things approved and implemented during President Trump’s term of office, because the reality is, if it doesn’t get approved and stick during that time, you can have a president come in next and potentially revoke it,” he continued.
“Obviously, we didn’t really have the prospects of launching anything like this successfully during the Biden years, but it’s a new day, and I think this is going to make a big, big difference.”
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order centered on overhauling the higher education accreditation system to eliminate “unlawful discrimination and ideological overreach.”
“The Order directs the Secretary of Education to hold higher education ‘accreditors’ accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, for accreditors’ poor performance or violations of federal civil rights law,” stated a fact sheet about the order.
“It directs the Attorney General and Secretary of Education to investigate and take action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American higher education institutions, including law schools and medical schools.”
The White House claimed that such measures were necessary in light of standards like those of the American Bar Association, whose “accreditation standards for law schools require unlawful race-based preferences, which the Attorney General recently reminded the ABA are illegal.”
“These practices have diverted focus from student success to ideological conformity, undermining academic integrity and student achievement,” claimed the White House.
In February, the ABA suspended enforcement of its “Diversity and Inclusion” accreditation standard until Aug. 31 due to the Trump administration’s demand for the shuttering of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in higher education. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the University of North Carolina and Harvard University’s admissions policies, which use race as a factor in student acceptance, are unconstitutional, causing many U.S.-based institutions and companies to reevaluate their DEI rules.
