Dive Brief:
- A federal appeals court shot down Florida’s legal challenge to the accreditation system Monday, three years after the state first sued the U.S. Department of Education over it.
- The state argued that the accreditation system was unconstitutional because it delegates “unchecked authority” to private agencies to "dictate education standards.”
- The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling from late 2024 that dismissed Florida’s case.
Dive Insight:
A college must be accredited by a federally recognized agency to access federal financial aid, something few institutions can survive without.
In 2023, Florida asked a judge to block the Education Department from enforcing federal accreditation requirements against the state’s higher education institutions.
Elected state representatives “have exhibited a desire for greater involvement in the governance of state institutions," the lawsuit said, listing the development of new programs as one example. But the primary accreditor for Florida colleges, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, had policies that opposed state lawmakers’ goals, the lawsuit argued.
Under these policies, officials alleged, Florida was effectively unable to govern its colleges and universities without risking their viability.
“We reject the idea that a totally unaccountable, unappointed, unelected accrediting agency can trump what the state of Florida is doing,” Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said at the time.
But U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher, writing on behalf of a panel of three judges, on Monday ruled that “there is really no debate that the accreditation requirement is reasonable."
“It is obviously connected to Congress’s goal that federal student aid flow to high quality institutions," Brasher said. "The history of private accreditation underscores the reasonableness of relying on that kind of preexisting practice.”
He also dismissed Florida's argument that accreditation agencies are effectively exercising legislative or executive power.
"Congress’s decision to use private accreditation as a signal of institutional quality does not delegate legislative or executive power or require accreditors’ appointment as executive branch officers," Brasher said
