On June 21, Florida sued the Biden administration to curtail the power of higher education accreditation agencies. The federal government requires that colleges be accredited by certain accreditation agencies, all of which are progressive-dominated, in order for the colleges to receive any federal financial aid, or for their students to receive any federal financial aid (including loans, grants, or work-study programs). Accreditation agencies routinely harm colleges by pressuring them to adopt “equity” and “diversity” mandates that prefer applicants of some races over others. An accreditor pressured George Mason University to adopt illegal racial quotas in admissions, resulting in GMU increasing its use of race in admissions.
The Florida Attorney General filed the suit against the Education Department in the federal district court in Fort Lauderdale. The suit alleges that the Department has allowed accrediting agencies to wield unchecked power, which they have used to harm Florida colleges.
“In higher education, Congress has ceded unchecked power to private accrediting agencies to dictate education standards to colleges and universities, and it has forbidden the U.S. Department of Education (the Department)from meaningfully reviewing, approving, or rejecting those standards,” says Florida’s complaint in the lawsuit.
The complaint describes how accrediting agencies use this power to apply their own ideologically-charged standards to individual colleges and universities, with only limited judicial review. These standards are inescapable, because all colleges need to be accredited to get federal funding, and a college needs a “reasonable cause” to change accreditors. As a result, these agencies are gatekeepers to $112 billion in federal student aid.
The complaint takes particular issue with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS), which oversees all of Florida’s higher education institutions. The state alleges that on multiple occasions, SACS wielded its authority force it to back off of several actions:
In 2011, Governor Rick Scott publicly called for the President of Florida A&M (FAMU) to be suspended over a hazing incident that killed a marching band member. SACS responded by threatening FAMU’s accreditation if it followed his direction.
Then in 2013, SACS threatened the accreditation of the University of Florida, after Scott asked then-president Bernie Machen to delay his retirement.
In 2021, SACS threatened the accreditation of Florida State University because Florida’s Board of Governors was considering naming Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran as its President. According to the complaint, despite overseeing all of Florida’s schools, Corcoran lacked “appropriate experience and qualifications” to oversee a single university.
Florida also objects to the Education Department’s mishandling of the accreditation system. In 2020, the Trump administration revised ED regulations to encourage competition; in response, Florida passed Senate Bill 7044, requiring colleges and universities to change accreditors, in 2021.
The federal Education Department retaliated against Florida’s new law by issuing new guidance making it harder for individual colleges to change accreditors, specifically targeted against SB 7044. The same day its new guidance was issued, a senior Biden administration official published a blog post attacking SB 7044. Several Florida schools are currently being forced to jump through hoops by the Education Department, according to Florida, and more than half of state schools still need to change accreditors in the next two years; but they cannot because of interference from the Education Department. And SACS continues to pressure Florida colleges on basic issues of education policy.
Florida claims the accreditation system violates the private non-delegation doctrine, which prevents Congress from delegating legislative powers to private entities. The state also alleges that it violates the Constitution’s Appointments Clause (Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution), and exceeds its authority under Spending Clause. Florida also says the Education Department’s guidance violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
Florida’s complaint asks that the judge declare the accreditation requirements unconstitutional, and permanently enjoin the Education Department from enforcing the requirements against Florida. In the alternative, Florida asks the judge to strike down the limits on changing accreditors.
Accreditation agencies pressure colleges to adopt left-wing policies even in very conservative states like Idaho. Idaho’s colleges and universities are accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), notes the Idaho Freedom Foundation:
The NWCCU is committed to “promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice within the organization and among member institutions.”
Its website states that it is particularly concerned with making institutions of higher education “race-conscious.” Equity, according to the commission, by definition requires race-conscious policies and practices. This goal is enforced by NWCCU’s standards wherein closing equity gaps is the core of the accreditation review process.
In student achievement, Idaho universities seeking accreditation from the NWCCU must establish indicators disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender and socioeconomic status with the goal of closing equity gaps. Student support resources must be used to target these equity gaps…..To assist universities in meeting these standards, the NWCCU created an “Equity Resource Library” highlighting 20 different DEI areas toward achieving an institution-wide social justice transformation. Resources include “Debunking 5 Myths About Affirmative Action, Race Conscious Admissions and Whiteness and White Privilege” among other racially charged subjects.
Accreditors argue for establishing race-conscious student admissions and giving faculty and students antiracist training, including training white teachers to recognize they are “part of the problem of racial equity.” They recommend infusing curriculum and instruction with DEI. Even mathematics and other STEM fields must become “equity minded.”
To meet these accreditation standards universities and colleges adopt strategic institution-wide diversity and equity plans, establish task forces, hire administrators, create more offices and adopt new policies, causing the social justice virus to metastasize throughout campus life.
Consider the University of Idaho, which established a Council on Diversity and Inclusion that has initiated a well-developed diversity plan that requires the creation of “strategic hiring initiatives that target women and underrepresented and diverse groups in all units.” A chief diversity officer, earning a salary of $141,586, is dedicated to carrying out those goals.
UI has also hired a diversity director for its college of engineering and started a Black Cultural Center to provide “a safe space for black students” and increase black student enrollment.
