BOCA RATON, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a new plan to overhaul higher education accreditation in Florida during a press conference at Florida Atlantic University on Thursday morning.
Recommended Videos
The conference began at 10 a.m. at the Owl’s Nest inside the Schmidt Family Complex for Academic and Athletic Excellence, located at 777 Glades Rd., on the Florida Atlantic University campus.
DeSantis has frequently highlighted Florida’s top national ranking in higher education and its affordability, noting the state has the lowest tuition of any in the country.
He said 77% of undergraduate students in Florida graduate debt-free—something he called “not the norm throughout the country.”
DeSantis also emphasized the state’s investment in workforce readiness, pointing to programs that allow high school students to graduate with job-ready certifications such as HVAC, enabling them to enter the workforce immediately.
He reiterated his administration’s policy of post-tenure review at public universities, allowing institutions to evaluate and, if necessary, terminate professors for poor performance.
“Focus on merit,” DeSantis said. “We’re not going to play games. We understand that people come from all types of different backgrounds, but we’re going to focus on merit.”
He also took aim at what he described as an “accreditation cartel,” criticizing the influence of traditional accrediting bodies.
“You have fourth-tier private universities that expect you to take out hundreds of thousands in loans, and then you get a degree where it isn’t even worth it,” DeSantis said.
He said most accreditors are “all singing from the same sheet of music,” prompting his administration to push legislation that allows for alternative accreditation systems.
DeSantis noted that while Florida has eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs in higher education, it will take time to establish new accrediting organizations.
“We are establishing a new accreditor for higher education, and we’re calling it the Commission for Public Higher Education,” DeSantis said. “It will upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels and provide institutions with an alternative that focuses on student achievement.”
According to DeSantis, the new accreditation model will emphasize “truth and efficiency,” ensuring that colleges meet and maintain academic quality and operational excellence on behalf of their students.
“The Commission for Public Higher Education is a consortium of higher education systems from several states offering a new accreditation model that will focus on student outcomes, process efficiency, and the pursuit of excellence for public postsecondary education,” a news released from the governor’s office stated.
Florida Atlantic University President Adam Hasner began his speech by wishing First Lady Casey DeSantis a happy birthday.
He said FAU was a fitting location to launch the new Commission for Public Higher Education, citing the university’s founding mission to “cast aside the Ivy trappings of higher education” and its motto, “Where tomorrow begins.”
“This is an appropriate setting to create a better way for education accreditation,” Hasner said.
Thursday’s press conference comes a day after DeSantis responded to growing concerns about operations at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a decades-old facility located along the Tamiami Trail at the edge of Big Cypress National Preserve.
The site is being prepared for temporary mass housing, with detention of migrants as the goal, a project that Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier dubbed earlier this week as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“This thing’s been used a bunch of times over many, many years, and so the impact will be zero and that’s in keeping with our policy to do historic Everglades restoration,” DeSantis said Wednesday.
Local 10 viewers can watch the press conference here:
This is a developing story. Watch Local 10 News or refresh the page for the latest updates.
