This week, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced she “is fighting to take back the postsecondary education system from unelected accrediting agencies and return power to Florida’s citizens.”
At a news conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis, Moody announced a “new legal action challenging a federal law that requires public postsecondary schools to submit to private accreditors to qualify for federal funding” which “argues that the current scheme is unconstitutional because it gives unelected academics unchecked power over public institutions.”
“For too long, private academic accreditors have been holding our colleges and universities hostage. Thanks to the fearless leadership of Governor DeSantis, we are fighting to take back our public postsecondary education system from unelected private organizations who have no accountability or oversight,” Moody said.
“Attorney General Moody is taking action against the unconstitutional accreditation requirements for public postsecondary institutions. Under federal law, private accrediting agencies decide which universities and colleges are eligible for approximately $112 billion in federal funding. To participate in federal programs, universities and colleges must comply with the whims of unelected academics who do not have to answer to the taxpayers funding these schools,” Moody’s office noted.
The complaint states: “Almost 100 years ago, the Supreme Court asked the following: ‘[W]ould it be seriously contended that Congress could delegate its legislative authority to trade or industrial associations or groups…because such associations or groups are familiar with the problems of their enterprises?’ The question was rhetorical. The answer was a resounding ‘no.’ And the reason is obvious—doing so would be ‘utterly inconsistent with the constitutional prerogatives and duties of Congress.’ Nonetheless, 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. Making matters worse, Congress has given accreditors broad power to apply their own standards to colleges and universities, subject only to limited judicial review.”
“The result is that private accrediting agencies enjoy nearly unchecked power over state institutions. Florida’s postsecondary accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, regularly wields this power in Florida and other states to keep the public from running their own institutions,” Moody’s office added.
The complaint states: “For example, SACS recently threatened the accreditation of Florida State University (FSU) merely because FSU was considering the State’s Commissioner of Education for university president… And in Georgia, SACS threatened the federal funding of every public college and university in the State over the possible appointment of a former governor to oversee the state university system.”
The complaint argues that the current accreditation scheme violates both the Appointments Clause and the Spending Clause in the U.S. Constitution.
