Jeff Landry says LA colleges will switch to a new accreditor | Education

Louisiana will join other Southern states that are developing a new accrediting agency for public colleges and universities, Gov. Jeff Landry said Tuesday, echoing a conservative complaint that existing accreditors have imposed liberal values on the institutions they evaluate.

Accrediting agencies hold significant sway over universities, which must meet accreditors’ quality standards in order for students to receive federal financial aid. Lately, the little-known private agencies have come under fire from conservative critics.

In April, President Donald Trump said some accreditors “abused their enormous authority” by requiring schools to meet standards related to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI. Last month, Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, said the public university systems in Florida and five other Southern states — Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — will create a new accreditor to compete with the “accreditation cartel.”

On Tuesday, Landry signed an executive order creating a task force to explore adopting that new accreditor, which he said will offer “an alternative to the out-of-touch accreditation system.”

“This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward a system rooted in merit-based achievement,” he said in a statement.

Known as the Commission for Public Higher Education, the new accreditor must still be approved by the U.S. Department of Education, a process that typically takes at least two years. Depending on the recommendations of Louisiana’s new 13-member task force, which is expected to meet for the first time next month, the state’s public university systems could pursue dual accreditation from their current accreditor and the new agency while it awaits federal approval.

University leaders in states that joined the effort for a new accreditor say they want a streamlined process that’s less burdensome and more focused on student outcomes.

Higher-education experts say that developing an accreditor specifically to serve public institutions could offer some advantages. But some have raised concerns about college accreditation becoming overly politicized, with politicians wielding the process — which Trump has called his “secret weapon” — as a cudgel to reshape higher education.

“Accreditation is getting caught up in the culture wars,” said John Przypyszny, a Washington D.C.-based attorney who specializes in higher education law. “When you start looking at accreditation through an ideological lens, it’s just not a healthy dynamic.”

Accreditation controversy

Until recently, college accreditation was a bureaucratic process that mostly played out behind the scenes.

Nonprofit accreditors— which are recognized by the federal government but operate independently — assess school quality by looking at finances, curriculum, faculty, student achievement and other factors. Louisiana and surrounding states are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACS.

Some university administrators call the accreditation process an expensive box-checking exercise that does little to improve student outcomes. Critics on the right have slammed some accreditors for assessing colleges’ efforts to enroll students from diverse backgrounds and ensure they feel welcomed and supported on campus.

On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to “fire the radical left accreditors.” In April, he issued an executive order directing the U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to rescind approval of any accreditor that requires colleges or universities to adopt diversity, equity or inclusion practices, which he called “unlawful discrimination.” Trump, who eventually wants to eliminate the education department, also ordered McMahon to approve new accreditors.

Florida and its partner states seized on Trump’s call for new accreditors, announcing in June their plan to establish the Commission for Public Higher Education.

According to the group’s business plan, the new accreditor will be a nonprofit incorporated in Florida and initially funded by $4 million from that state’s Legislature. It aims to begin accrediting institutions next year while working to obtain approval from the U.S. education department by 2028.

The plan follows earlier disputes between Florida and SACS, the Southern states accreditor, which in the past has raised concerns about political interference in Florida’s public university system. In June, DeSantis said the accreditor had told the state’s universities, “You’re not going to get accredited unless you do DEI,” the online publication Inside Higher Ed reported.

SACS, unlike some accreditors in other regions, does not list diversity, equity and inclusion in its standards.

“I don’t really think that’s an issue that SACS has had strong, or really any standards, in,” said Przypyszny, the higher-education attorney. “DEI is a little bit of red herring, in my view.”

SACS President-elect Stephen Pruitt, who starts next month, said he appreciates Gov. Landry establishing a task force focused on accreditation.

“Accreditation is central to quality education,” he said in an email Wednesday, adding that “accreditors are held to high standards and must themselves be reviewed.”

New task force

Before Louisiana’s public universities can change accreditors, the consortium of states must get their agency up and running — a potentially heavy lift.

The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, an advocacy group, said on its website this week that the six states seeking to establish a new accreditor must still hire a staff for the agency, set its standards and complete the review process for several institutions.

“All these steps must be successfully completed before the new accreditor can apply for recognition,” the group wrote.

Landry’s order says the new Task Force on Public Higher Education Reform should assess the potential benefits of switching to the new accreditor and identify any laws or administrative actions needed to make the move.

The new accreditor will focus on student outcomes and efficiency, while preventing the “imposition of divisive ideological content on institutions,” the order says.

The task force will include the commissioner of higher education; the chair of the Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public university systems; the board chairs of the LSU, Southern, University of Louisiana and Louisiana Community and Technical Colleges systems; and several lawmakers and members of the Landry administration. The group, whose chair Landry will appoint, must hold its first meeting by the end of August and issue recommendations by Jan. 30.