According to The Hill, six U.S. states are forming a new accreditation body called the Commission for Public Education, or CPHE.
The states are Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. More right-leaning red states are expected to join the CPHE in coming months, the article said.
The story credits Florida and its Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, for spearheading a new direction for higher education. DeSantis took action after he tangled with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges over liberal ideology that focuses on race and gender over academics and future job success.
When he announced the new CPHE last week, Gov. DeSantis vowed it will “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels, and it will provide institutions with an alternative that he says focuses on student achievement, rather than the ideological fads…”
David Randall oversees academic research at the National Association of Scholars, where he tracks trends in education. He tells AFN a new direction was necessary to “bust up” what Randall calls the “accreditation cartel” that oversees high ed.
"The radical education establishment,” Randall advises, “uses the accreditation organizations as ways to impose diversity, equity and inclusion, and other radical political requirements, to avoid accountability."
Left-wing ideology and its components, such as DEI and critical race theory, have become a main target of Gov. DeSantis. He has said Florida is “where woke goes to die.”
According to the Hill story, campuses that have signed on for the CPHE accreditation include ones in the Texas A&M University System, State University System of Florida, University System of Georgia, University of North Carolina System, University of South Carolina, and University of Tennessee System.
