The U.S. Department of Education has warned Florida officials, in a letter sent last Thursday, that forcing the state’s public colleges and universities to seek new accreditation, as required under a bill that passed last week, could mean losing access to federal student loans, Pell Grants, and other forms of financial aid.
Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the governor, said DeSantis continued to support the legislation. “We love the bill — higher-education institutions should be held accountable.”
The Education Department raises three issues in its letter, notably that any college applying to a new accreditor must get approval from the secretary of education and demonstrate a “reasonable cause” for that change. The process is intended to “prevent institutions from changing accreditors in search of lower standards, which may be implicated here,” says the letter, which was signed by James R. Kvaal, the under secretary of education. Since the bill may be the first of its kind, it’s not clear whether a requirement under state law would be considered a reasonable cause.
In addition, the letter says, federal regulations prohibit any college from changing accreditors if it is under any kind of sanction from its current accreditor. That includes actions that don’t necessarily result in the removal of accreditation, such as show cause or probation, though no public college in the state is now under sanction from its accreditor.
Colleges must also be voluntary members of an accrediting organization, the letter explains, but “it is not clear to the department that Florida institutions seeking a new agency, and the agencies accrediting them, would meet the voluntary requirement.”
The department also repeated concerns from accreditation experts that the bill would be costly and an administrative burden for many institutions.