TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is suing the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Education over the college accreditation system — the latest move in the governor's ongoing effort to combat what he calls "woke ideology" education.
DeSantis announced the lawsuit Thursday while speaking at the Ybor City Campus of Hillsborough Community College.
After touting changes he's made to Florida's education system, the governor claimed college accreditation organizations have too much power and criticized them for interfering with the state's educational policies.
“We need to ensure that these systems are accountable to the best interests of the state of Florida," DeSantis said. "We reject the idea that a totally unaccountable, unappointed, unelected accrediting agency can trump what the state of Florida is doing."
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, challenges a federal law that requires colleges and universities to submit to private accreditors to qualify for federal funding.
“We’re asking the court to find this arrangement to be unconstitutional," DeSantis said.
Under federal law, private accrediting agencies decide which universities and colleges are eligible for approximately $112 billion in federal funding. The agencies provide a standard of requirements that universities must follow to maintain accreditation.
According to the governor's lawsuit, the country's college accreditation system is unconstitutional because it violates the private non-delegation doctrine, the appointments clause and the spending clause.
"Congress has ceded unchecked power to private accrediting agencies to dictate education standards to colleges and universities," the lawsuit reads. "The result is that private accrediting agencies enjoy near limitless power over state institutions."
DeSantis cited as an example that The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) “threatened the accreditation of Florida State University" in 2021 when Richard Corcoran, then the state's commissioner of education, was a candidate to be the next president of the school. The accrediting agency said Corcoran's candidacy posed a potential conflict of interest if he failed to resign as schools commissioner.
Corcoran was eventually selected as an interim president of New College of Florida. Earlier this year, DeSantis appointed six new trustees to run the college, which was best known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings.
“Within the next couple years, I think we’re going to see this accreditation cartel basically come crumbling down," DeSantis said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.