“You cannot take legislative power and delegate it to an unaccountable private body,” DeSantis said. In order to seek a new accreditor, a university must receive permission from the U.S. Their ability to make these changes “is substantially burdened” by what DeSantis described as the Biden administration’s “abuse of the current accreditation scheme.”

The state law requires more than half of Florida’s public colleges and universities to change accreditors in the next two years. It also allows universities to sue accreditors for damages if they believe they had been negatively affected. However, Florida passed a law last year that prohibits colleges and universities from being accredited by the same agency or association for consecutive accreditation cycles. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACS, oversees the accreditation of colleges and universities in Florida. The new board intends to turn the school into a classical liberal arts school modeled after conservative favorite Hillsdale College in Michigan. Earlier this year, he appointed trustees to the board of New College of Florida, a tiny Sarasota school of about 1,000 students that was best known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings. The lawsuit comes as DeSantis, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, imposes his conservative agenda on the state’s education system. Department of Education, Secretary Miguel Cardona and other federal officials.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale federal court, challenges a federal law that requires colleges and universities to submit to private accreditors to qualify for federal funding. Department of Education over accreditation agencies, which control federal aid for students. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the state has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and the U.S.

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