Staff Reports
Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has filed a lawsuit against Joe Biden's Department of Education. The lawsuit seeks to challenge the department's accreditation process for colleges and universities, which, according to DeSantis's office, undermines Florida's higher education reforms. The Governor asserts that the US Department of Education collaborated unconstitutionally with accreditation bodies to thwart his efforts to increase transparency and accountability at Florida's public colleges and universities. In order to increase competition and quality, DeSantis signed a new law last year requiring colleges and universities to pursue accreditation from multiple accreditors in successive cycles. In response to his efforts, the Department of Education has issued three "guidance documents" outlining the criteria for determining whether an institution has "reasonable cause" to change accreditors, which Florida Governor DeSantis deems burdensome and unaccountable to the state's citizens.
DeSantis Files Lawsuit Against Biden’s Department of Education https://t.co/879V5g5zaq
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 23, 2023
The Governor considers the Biden administration's efforts to thwart his education reforms to be an abuse of federal authority. He vowed that he would not allow Biden's Department of Education to defund Florida's top-ranked higher education system for refusing to kowtow to unaccountable accreditors who believe they should manage Florida's public institutions. He added that he intends to continue bringing transparency and accountability to higher education and to reorient the mission of colleges and universities so that they always pursue the truth and adequately prepare their students for success.
This week, the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, following a contentious period between Florida and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the primary regional accrediting agency for 11 southern states. Last year, the state passed a law mandating that Florida's public colleges and universities rotate their accreditation in order to receive federal funding. Florida's attorney general, Ashley Moody, stated that the accrediting body had threatened to revoke Florida State University's accreditation due to the consideration of the commissioner of education for the position of FSU president. Nonetheless, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis stood firm in defense of his education policies, which he believes are essential to the state's growth and development in order to safeguard the students' interests and academic advancement.
