Write an article about Florida will help create less ‘woke’ college accrediting body, DeSantis says .Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6) and made content unique, Retain any existing tags from
Florida will join some other Southern states to form a new less “woke” accrediting body to set standards for state universities, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday.
The new Commission for Public Higher Education will consist of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, with other states likely to join, DeSantis said Thursday at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
The new body would likely be used by state universities instead of existing regional accrediting bodies such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which has butted heads with Republican lawmakers and education leaders in recent years after scrutinizing the operations of some state institutions.
“It 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,” DeSantis said.
This is the latest step in an effort by the DeSantis administration and other Republican lawmakers to infuse a more conservative approach into the state’s colleges and universities. Other moves have included recruiting Republican politicians to serve as university presidents, banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at institutions, weakening tenure protections for faculty and appointing trustees to college and university boards that closely align with DeSantis’ vision.
It’s unclear how long it would take this body to start operating or accrediting institutions. The new body will require approval from the federal government, which DeSantis said would have been difficult under the Biden administration. But he said the new commission should get approval from the Trump administration, which has shared many of the same education priorities.
Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner speaks during a news conference at Florida Atlantic University on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
A news release said the commission will focus on “academic excellence, student outcomes, process efficiency and the pursuit of quality assurance for public postsecondary education.
“By establishing rigorous, transparent, and adaptable outcomes-based accreditation standards and practices, [the commission] will ensure that colleges and universities meet and maintain academic quality and operational excellence on behalf of their students,” the release states.
Colleges and universities must be accredited in order for students to qualify for financial aid, and many colleges and universities will only accept transfer credits from a regionally accredited body.
DeSantis alleged on Thursday that the Atlanta-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools forces state universities to adhere to diversity, equity and inclusion requirements that run counter to laws passed in Florida in recent years.
“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.’ Who the heck are they to say what our universities have to do?” DeSantis said. “They’re telling them they can’t follow state law. Are you kidding me? Nobody elected them to make that judgment.”
An official from the Southern Association couldn’t be reached Thursday, but its president, Belle Wheelan, told the Sun Sentinel in 2023 that her organization didn’t have any DEI requirements for schools and colleges to be accredited.
The organization’s website suggests DEI practices are optional.
“While there are no specific benchmarks regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts for … member institutions, all are encouraged to continue to regularly engage in thoughtful discussions about diversity, to intentionally cultivate and sustain inclusive and equitable processes, and to implement strategies to create and maintain respectful and supportive learning environments in which to learn and work.”
When a reporter told DeSantis on Thursday that the commission denies having any DEI requirements, he responded, “So I don’t think that’s true at all. I mean is there a single university that hasn’t had issues with SACS in our system?”
But the state’s most vocal complaints in recent years have focused on other issues, such as when the accreditor started investigating in 2021 whether the University of Florida was exerting undue political influence by barring three of its professors from testifying in a lawsuit opposing voting rights restrictions. The university eventually allowed them to testify.
Republican lawmakers were also angry when the Southern Association warned that a 2021 presidential search at Florida State University may violate accrediting standards. The issue was one of the semifinalists, Richard Corcoran, also served on the State University System’s Board of Governors, which would confirm the selection.
FSU decided not to choose Corcoran as a finalist. He soon left the Board of Governors and was selected as president of New College of Florida in Sarasota in 2023.
For years, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has been the only option for most colleges. But the Trump administration made changes during the president’s first term that made it easier to change accreditors.
The Florida Legislature passed a law in 2022 that requires public colleges and universities to change accreditors every cycle, which is usually about five to 10 years. That means schools now overseen by the Southern Association would have to apply for their next accrediting cycle to another regional body, such as the Higher Learning Commission in Chicago or the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia.
The DeSantis administration also sued the Biden administration, challenging the constitutionality of the accreditation system, but a judge dismissed the case in October.
It’s unknown whether Florida’s universities will be required to use the new accrediting commission or whether it will be optional. It’s also unknown whether Florida will rescind the law requiring schools to change accreditors every cycle.
Bill Trapani, a communications professor who serves on FAU’s Board of Trustees, attended Thursday’s announcement but said he left with a lot of questions.
“Without additional details on how the proposed accreditation consortium would function it’s difficult to assess its possible value. However, for the reputations of the universities and the faculty they oversee any legitimate accreditation agency must be transparent, guided by professional standards, focused on assessing academic merit and be free from political influence of any kind,” Trapani said.
“Florida’s educators have never, and will never, engage in indoctrination. As our national rankings demonstrate, the states educators have been, and will continue to be, singularly focused on their academic mission of providing innovative and transformational research, creative achievement, teaching, and community engagement to the public and the world at large,” he said.
Originally Published: June 26, 2025 at 12:43 PM EDT
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