Posted on Saturday, July 19, 2025
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by Jordan Hess
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For decades, higher education accreditors have been effectively running a cartel to maintain control of America’s colleges and universities. But now conservatives are beginning to restore integrity to higher education through accreditation reform that targets the woke enforcers of the university system.
Recent developments in Florida have provided a blueprint for future action on this front in other states and at the federal level. Specifically, Governor Ron DeSantis has spearheaded the formation of the Commission for Public Higher Education, a first-of-its-kind statewide accrediting body launched in late June.
This commission is designed to break the current monopoly on accreditation and deliver a streamlined, outcomes-based alternative focused squarely on academic rigor and student achievement. The Florida Board of Governors has backed DeSantis’s initiative with a $4 million investment and is set to vote on the official creation of the commission, which aims to begin accrediting institutions by June 2026 and to attain U.S. Department of Education recognition by June 2028.
DeSantis frames this move as an essential recalibration of higher education away from bureaucratic and ideological overreach, ensuring institutions are judged on transparent, student-centered standards—not DEI mandates or the size of their administrative staff. This type of reform is not just a good idea; it’s vital for the preservation of free expression and critical thinking among the rising generation.
Currently, there are 19 recognized institutional accrediting bodies and seven regional accrediting bodies in the United States. This exclusive club of accreditors gets to decide which colleges and universities deserve accreditation. Only accredited institutions are eligible for government-issued federal student financial aid and loans.
In practice, these accreditors operate exactly like a cartel – they crush competition, centralize power, and use their power to enforce ideological control.
Even Americans who didn’t go to college or who don’t have a family member attending college should be outraged about this corrupt system. A small group of accreditors decide where and how your federal tax dollars are spent in the higher ed space.
This cartel has directly contributed to the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis by enabling the explosive growth of bloated, inefficient, and ideologically driven higher education institutions that often leave students with massive debt and poor job prospects.
Furthermore, many of the universities accredited by the cartel have become little more than woke factories teaching students what to think instead of how to think. In one survey, 62 percent of professors in the U.S. identified as liberal, while only 14 percent identified as conservative. That vast disparity is a direct result of the growth of administrative positions filled with far-left ideologues and accreditors pressuring universities to move in an ever-more leftward direction.
Florida’s reform doesn’t have to remain a state-level change. When DeSantis was in Congress, he and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) proposed the Higher Education Reform and Opportunity (HERO) Act. The HERO Act would have streamlined and condensed federal student loans, given institutions more skin in the game, added more transparency in higher ed, and given accrediting authority to the states.
I played a small part in helping draft this innovative piece of legislation. Adding transparency and accountability and allowing states to accredit institutions of higher learning would inject competition into the market, helping more students to succeed while bringing down the costs associated with higher education.
With little movement at the federal level, Governor DeSantis is forging ahead with this type of reform in the Sunshine State. The governor’s aim is to upend the woke accreditation cartels. Speaking specifically of Florida law schools, he has said that they “should not be captive to having to bend the knee to get accreditation from” the American Bar Association, which “mandates explicit DEI compliance as a condition of accreditation” and “has now become a far left activist group.”
The commission in Florida 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. The commission could also accredit more certification programs and trades and fewer liberal arts degrees like gender studies that are highly unlikely to lead to gainful employment. Vulnerable students and families shouldn’t be hoodwinked into forking over tens of thousands of dollars at exorbitant interest rates for a worthless degree.
“Together, we are leaving behind the legacy systems and failed institutions of the past, while charting a new course in higher education that puts student success at the forefront of everything that we do,” said Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner.
Other states are taking notice. Florida is establishing its commission in conjunction with the University of Georgia system, the University of North Carolina system, the University of South Carolina, the University of Tennessee system, and the Texas A&M University system.
The movement to overhaul America’s systems of accreditation will pave the way for free speech and critical thinking on campus, bring down costs, and break up the cartel that is perpetuating groupthink on campus. With Trump in the White House, Republicans in control of Congress, and courageous conservative governors in the states, the time is right to take bold action to reform higher ed in America.
Jordan Hess, a native of Utah, holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s from George Washington University in political management. He gained Capitol Hill experience working in the US Senate for four years and at The Heritage Foundation for three. He currently resides in Utah doing government affairs work and is actively involved in political campaigns.
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