Dive Brief: 

• Six public higher education systems are forming their own accrediting agency for public colleges, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fierce critic of the traditional accreditation system, announced at a press conference Thursday. 
• The new agency — called the Commission for Public Higher Education — is being created by the State University System of Florida, the Texas A&M University System, the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina System, the University of South Carolina system and the University of Tennessee System. 
• DeSantis criticized the diversity, equity and inclusion standards of college accreditors and said Florida had faced accreditor pushback on new higher education laws and policies. “They exert all this power over our education institutions,” DeSantis said during the news conference at Florida Atlantic University. “That stops today.”

Dive Insight: 

The U.S. Department of Education must recognize accreditors before the colleges they oversee can access federal financial aid. To be recognized by the Education Department, accreditors must submit an application to the agency, meet federal standards and operate for at least two years. 

DeSantis said officials needed to act now to launch the new accreditor during President Donald Trump’s second term to avoid another administration undoing the work. The Trump administration has voiced strong support for new accreditors. 

The Florida governor has spearheaded a campaign to reshape the accreditation sector, both within Florida and at the federal level. In 2023, the state even launched a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Education’s accreditation requirements, arguing the process unconstitutionally takes power away from the legislative branch to agencies that can dictate academic standards. A federal judge dismissed the complaint, though Florida has since appealed. 

The Republican governor suggested Thursday that accreditors' DEI standards pushed some colleges to be more focused on "indoctrination" than education. 

“What we’ve seen develop is an accreditation cartel,” DeSantis said. “The accreditors by and large are all singing from the same sheet of music, and it’s not what the state of Florida wants to see reflected in its universities.” 

Florida has clashed in the past with one prominent accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC. 

In 2021, for instance, SACSCOC flagged a potential conflict of interest in Richard Corcoran’s candidacy for Florida State University president. At the time, Corcoran also served on the system governing board that appointed university presidents, and SACSCOC warned that Florida State’s accreditation could be threatened if he continued in the selection process without stepping down. 

Corcoran ultimately wasn’t chosen as head of Florida State, though the DeSantis-installed board of the New College of Florida later named him as president. 

But following the public clash, Florida passed a law in 2022 forcing the state’s public colleges — which were accredited by SACSCOC — to switch accreditors each cycle. North Carolina lawmakers passed a similar law the next year after SACSCOC inquired about shared governance concerns at the state’s flagship university. 

DeSantis said Thursday that Florida's colleges had also faced accreditor pushback after state legislators passed a law barring public higher education institutions from spending money on DEI. 

“When we said, ‘No DEI,’ the accreditor was telling our universities, ‘Oh no no — you’re not going to get accredited unless you do DEI.’” DeSantis said. “Who the heck are they to say what our universities have to do? They’re telling them they can’t follow state law? Are you kidding me?” 

DeSantis and university officials said the new accrediting agency would concentrate on student achievement and measurable outcomes. 

“The current accreditors and the current models are all focused on inputs and processes rather than outputs and outcomes,” Ray Rodrigues, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said during the press conference. “Too much time and effort is spent checking the compliance box and managing the minutiae of bureacracy, with very little focus on real, actual academic excellence. This approach suppresses innovation, and it punishes institutions who try to do things differently.”

Rodrigues, a former state lawmaker and a longtime DeSantis ally, sponsored the 2022 Florida law requiring public institutions to change accreditors.

Trump has levied similar criticisms against the accreditation system, signing an executive order in late April that called on U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon to recognize new accreditors. He slammed DEI-related accreditor criteria and called for requirements around “intellectual diversity” instead.