Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday the state is suing the Biden administration for allegedly violating the Constitution by allowing higher education accreditation groups to “threaten” the status of state universities without oversight.
At a press conference at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa on Thursday morning, DeSantis blasted the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the body in charge of accreditation for degree-granting higher education institutions in the South.
The governor, who is campaigning for the Republican nomination for president, argued the organization and other accreditation agencies have too much authority and no accountability, allowing them to push their own ideologies on Florida’s university students.
DeSantis has had a fractious relationship with the accrediting body, which has raised alarms about many of the policies pushed by the governor on colleges and universities.
A loss of accreditation would jeopardize $112 billion in federal aid to higher education institutions in Florida.
“Within the next couple years, I think we’re gonna see this accreditation cartel basically come crumbling down, and more freedom in higher education reigning supreme,” said DeSantis.
The lawsuit names the Biden administration, the U.S. Department of Education, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and others, DeSantis said, and alleges they are violating the private non-delegation doctrine, the appointments clause and the spending clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The lawsuit will be filed in Fort Lauderdale, DeSantis said.
“We believe in the traditional mission of the university to pursue truth, to be able to promote rigor in academic discourse and to prepare students to be citizens of this republic,” DeSantis said. “I know that that’s not necessarily, that may have fallen out of fashion in many parts of the country, but we don’t think that the purpose of universities is to impose an ideological agenda.”
A representative with SACSCOC did not wish to comment for this story. Department of Education officials did not immediately respond to a message from USA TODAY seeking comment.
DeSantis is no stranger to the courtroom when it comes to his political agenda and priorities. His administration previously tangled with the Biden administration in court over immigration and drug policies. The enactment of his hard-right agenda in Florida spurred a flurry of lawsuits on everything from laws regulating medical care for transgender people to restrictions on the state’s unions.
And DeSantis’s so-called Stop WOKE efforts at Florida universities have shaken critics and drawn national attention, including his elimination of diversity initiatives on campuses. At New College of Florida, the governor replaced a majority of the school’s board of trustees and vowed to create a new curriculum and focus modeled after the conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan, a private school.
In his press conference Thursday, DeSantis touted previous legislation that requires tenure review for professors and nixing diversity, equity and inclusion funding. Speaking behind a lectern that read “Freedom for Higher Education,” the governor extolled his leadership of the state of Florida and his track record of attacking COVID-19 protocols and the Biden administration.