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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R., scored a victory on Friday when the state of Florida’s university system approved a new accreditor to overhaul higher education.
Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee formed the Commission for Public Higher Education, a consortium of six public universities offering a new accreditation model. Florida’s Board of Governors approved the creation of the Commission for Public Higher Education at their latest meeting on July 11.
“The Commission for Public Higher Education is a consortium of six public university systems that are committed to streamlining accreditation standards and prioritizing student outcomes. It will be an accreditation model created by public universities for public colleges and universities,” a spokesperson for the board told Fox News Digital.
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The Commission will create a “first-of-its-kind accreditation model for public higher education institutions that will offer high-quality, efficient services prioritizing academic excellence, student outcomes and achievement.”
DeSantis said during a press conference at Florida Atlantic University that there was a need for “alternative accreditation.”
“The accreditors are telling them they have to do these things,” he said. “So, when we said, ‘No DEI,’ the accreditors are telling these universities, ‘No, 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? They’re telling them they can’t follow state law? Are you kidding me? Nobody elected them to make that judgment at all.”
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“What we’ve seen develop is an accreditation cartel and 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 in many different respects,” he continued.
A Department of Education spokesperson in June directed Fox News Digital to President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in April that called for accountability and reform to the accreditation process in higher education after claiming that past accrediting bodies “abused their enormous authority.”
The executive order cited accredited institutions offering “undergraduate and graduate programs with a negative return on investment” and compelling the “adoption of discriminatory ideology, rather than on student outcomes” in order to access federal aid.
DeSantis said the members of the new accrediting body have been working with the Department of Education to expedite the process of acquiring approval from the federal government.
“The Business Plan provides the mission and goals of CPHE and outlines the upcoming work for the entity to receive approval as a recognized institutional accreditor from the U.S. Department of Education,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital‘s request for comment.
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