Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday the formation of a new accreditor for the nation’s universities and colleges that has its birthplace in the state of Florida.
The Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) is a partnership between the State University System of Florida, and five other higher education bodies: the University System of Georgia, the University of North Carolina System, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee System, and the Texas A&M University System.
DeSantis said it’s crucial to strike on this idea now, under the Trump administration.
The governor and Republican legislators in Florida have wanted to change accreditors since 2022, when they passed a law requiring Florida schools to switch up accreditors every few years.
But DeSantis said the Biden administration would not have been supportive of Florida and the five other states starting their own accreditor.
“If we get this done, we do the trial run that we do have to do, we get approval, it starts to stick in all the states, and I think a lot, almost all the states in our region, are going to be favorable to this. Then you could develop a track record, then it's almost impossible for a future federal administration to try to upend the apple cart,” said DeSantis.
Watch the governor’s press conference here:
Governor DeSantis Announces New Higher Education Accreditor https://t.co/zqCjeElv83
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 26, 2025
DeSantis said the CPHE will have different standards than current accreditors, focusing on student achievement rather than “ideological fads.”
Florida universities are primarily accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS), which is the accreditor for most of the South.
The governor and fellow Republicans have been critical of SACS in the past, saying the accreditation system is unfairly biased toward more liberal-leaning institutions.
“We care about measurable outcomes. We care about efficiency, we care about pursuing truth. We care about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic. All those things have played second fiddle if they were even given any credence at all under these more prevailing accreditation models,” said DeSantis.
The CPHE still needs to be approved by the U.S. Department of Education, but DeSantis said he thinks President Trump and Secretary Linda McMahon will be supportive of it.
Florida University Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said he couldn't confirm the timeline for this process at Thursday’s press conference.
In its first press release, the CPHE says it will be guided by the following core principles:
- “It is appropriate and necessary to introduce competition, aligned with state and institutional needs, into the existing marketplace of university accreditation
- It is in the best interests of all interested parties, including students, to launch an accrediting body comprised of true peer institutions focused on public colleges and universities and their governing university systems
- It is imperative to reduce bureaucracy through a more efficient and focused accreditation process, which will result in lower costs and significant time savings for member institutions, and which will translate into lower tuition prices for students and families
- It is critical to ensure that this new accrediting body is accountable to the states of the member institutions
- It is necessary for the new accrediting body to become and remain recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for the purposes of Title IV participation by its accredited institutions.”
Read more about the CPHE here:
