Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is suing the Biden administration over a federal accrediting process he said is "unconstitutionally" interfering in Florida's education system.
Speaking at Hillsborough Community College's Ybor City Campus in Tampa, Florida, DeSantis was joined by Attorney General Ashley Moody, Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr., and State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues. In front of a podium labeled "Freedom For Higher Education," he touted Florida's record while denouncing "woke" ideology.
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The Florida governor contrasted his vision for education with the perceived vision of the Biden administration.
"We believe in the traditional mission of a university to pursue truth, to be able to promote rigor in academic discourse, and to prepare students to be students in this republic," DeSantis said.
"They believe that Florida should potentially lose student aid as a result of making these types of reforms. And so the Biden administration is seeking to crack down on the state of Florida for what we are doing," he continued. "And the way it works is ... there's accreditors, and the Department of Education approves whoever they want to be an accreditor. And then under their theory, the accreditor can serve as a veto against the entire state of Florida. That if our legislature passes, you know, reasonable reforms, the governor signs it, that they somehow get a veto of that process."
The Florida governor bashed the process as undemocratic and tyrannical.
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"I've read the state and federal constitutions a lot and I don't recall seeing that clause in either of those constitutions and so we reject the idea that a totally unaccountable, unappointed, unelected accrediting agency can trump what the state of Florida is doing," he said.
DeSantis used the opportunity to call for a wider reform of the accrediting process, to make the process more democratic and meritocratic.