Ron DeSantis shows his mettle again

In this post, I observed that some states are beginning to fight back effectively against woke attacks on our national character and our freedoms. I had in mind Florida and Virginia, especially.

In this post, Stanley Kurtz describes one little-noticed way in which Florida, under Ron DeSantis, is carrying out the fight. He is battling with the Biden administration over university accreditation.

What’s at stake in the fight over accreditation? Stanley explains:

Accreditors certify that institutions of higher education meet basic standards of quality. Students can’t receive Pell Grants or federal student loans unless their institution is accredited. Since almost every college depends on such federal assistance, loss of accreditation is tantamount to an institutional death sentence.

That leverage gives the faceless bureaucrats who run FSU’s obscure accreditor — SACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges) — the power to kill off any serious campaign of university reform. Or rather, accreditors — who are supposed to be apolitical — can abuse their daunting powers by deploying them to protect the illiberal regime that currently governs America’s college campuses.

How did the fight arise in Florida?

The DeSantis accreditation battle began in the spring of last year, when DeSantis’s education commissioner and former speaker of Florida’s house, Richard Corcoran, was being considered for the presidency of Florida State University (FSU). Since Corcoran is a conservative and committed to reforming higher education’s culture of intellectual conformity, the prospect of his appointment horrified FSU’s faculty and Florida’s left-leaning press. Nevertheless, Corcoran’s prospects looked good until Belle Wheelan, the head of FSU’s accrediting agency, stepped in to effectively scuttle his bid.

When Corcoran was up for the presidency of FSU, Wheelan wrote a letter to the chairperson of the Florida State University System Board of Governors suggesting that a conflict of interest and a potential lack of appropriate experience and qualifications on the part of an unnamed candidate might put FSU’s accreditation into question. The letter was widely understood to be referring to Corcoran.

Wheelan’s concerns were baseless. The Board of Governors planned to follow standard procedure and have Corcoran recuse himself from any vote on his own application for FSU’s presidency. As for experience and qualifications, political leaders often become university presidents. (Think of Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana and current president of Purdue.) In fact, two former Florida house speakers have helmed FSU in the last two decades, including John E. Thrasher, the incumbent president when Corcoran was under consideration. This is not to mention Corcoran’s education-based experience as Florida’s education commissioner and member of the University System Board of Governors.

Nonetheless, Corcoran’s name was withdrawn from the short list of candidates for FSU’s presidency, very likely in response to the accreditor’s implied threat.

The Florida legislature responded with a bill that requires state colleges and universities to change accrediting agencies at the end of each accreditation cycle. As Stanley says, “by rotating accreditors, the bill reduces the ability of any single accreditor to abuse its regulatory powers.”

Whether one agrees or disagrees with this legislation, it’s a reasonable exercise of a state’s authority. Why can’t a state mandate the rotation of its accreditors? Why should one accreditor have a monopoly? (See this piece by the National Association of Scholars and this one by Andrew Gillen for strong defenses of the new Florida law.)

But the left has a strong interest in installing and maintaining accreditors that will enforce left-wing orthodoxy on campuses. Thus, the Biden administration has issued new guidance, accompanied by an explanatory blog post. They amount to an effort to neutralize the Florida law by effectively keeping the state’s universities chained to their current accreditors.

In March, prior to issuing the guidance, the Biden Education Department had threatened to cut off federal aid to Florida colleges and universities if DeSantis implemented the new law. Undaunted, DeSantis signed the legislation into law and has not backed down since.

I agree with Stanley that this dispute has significance beyond its particular merits. The dispute shows that (1) Ron DeSantis understands how to attack wokeism in creative ways and (2) that he has the courage to stick to his guns. As Stanley puts it:

Pushing back in unprecedented ways against the faceless bureaucracy that regularly frustrates conservative governance is what DeSantis does.

I rate DeSantis ahead of Donald Trump in this regard. Trump understands the dangers of wokeism and knows how to make a strong speech on the subject. But as president, he didn’t follow through as strongly as DeSantis is doing as governor to combat the phenomenon. Indeed, for much of his presidency Trump did very little on this front.

Would he do better in a second term? Probably. However, I expect Trump would be too easily distracted from the task by the desire to settle scores. And even apart from that, administrative follow-through is not the former president’s strong suit.

Moreover, DeSantis has been on the front lines fighting state-imposed wokeism. He knows what pressure points to squeeze. Trump paints with a broader brush and without the same attention to detail.

Many will disagree with this assessment of Trump. But agree or disagree on Trump, I don’t think DeSantis’ willingness and ability to fight these battles can be questioned.