When six Southern public university systems this summer formed a new accreditation agency, the move shook the national evaluation model that higher education has relied on for decades.

The news wasn鈥檛 unexpected: It arrived a few months after President Donald Trump issued an in April overhauling the nation鈥檚 accreditation system by, among other things, barring accreditors from using college diversity mandates. It also came after U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon in May for universities to switch accreditors.

The accreditation process, often bureaucratic, cumbersome and time consuming, is critical to the survival of institutions of higher education. Colleges and their individual departments must undergo outside reviews 鈥� usually every few years 鈥� to prove that they meet certain educational and financial standards. If a school is not accredited, its students cannot receive federal aid such as Pell grants and student loans.

Some accreditation agencies acknowledge the process needs to evolve. But critics say the Trump administration is reshaping accreditation for political reasons, and risks undermining the legitimacy of the degrees colleges and universities award to students.

Trump said during his campaign that he would wield college accreditation as a 鈥渟ecret weapon鈥� to root out DEI and other 鈥渨oke鈥� ideas from higher education. He has made good on that pledge.

Over the summer, for example, the administration sent letters to the accreditors of both Columbia and Harvard universities, alleging that the schools had violated federal civil rights law, and thus their accreditation rules, by failing to prevent the harassment of Jewish students after Hamas鈥� Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.

The administration鈥檚 antipathy toward DEI has prompted some accreditors to remove diversity requirements. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, for instance, from its guiding principles earlier this year. Under White House pressure, the American Bar Association this year suspended enforcement of its DEI standards for its accreditation of law schools and has extended that suspension into next year.

But state legislatures laid the groundwork for public university accreditation changes even before Trump returned to the White House.

In 2022, Florida enacted a requiring the state鈥檚 public institutions to switch accreditors every cycle 鈥� usually every few years 鈥� forcing them to move away from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, known as SACSCOC.

North Carolina , with a law prohibiting the 16 universities within the University of North Carolina system and the state鈥檚 community colleges from receiving accreditation from the same agency for consecutive cycles.

Then, the consortium of six Southern university systems this summer launched its new accreditation agency, called the Commission for Public Higher Education. The participating states include Florida and North Carolina, along with Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in a news release that the commission will 鈥渂reak the ideological stronghold鈥� that other accreditation agencies have on higher education. Speaking at Florida Atlantic University, he the new organization will 鈥渦pend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels.鈥�

鈥淲e care about student achievement; we care about measurable outcomes; we care about efficiency; we care about pursuing truth; we care about preparing our students to be citizens of our republic,鈥� DeSantis said.

Jan Friis, senior vice president for government affairs at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which represents accrediting agencies, said the century-old system is in the midst of its most significant changes since the federal government tied accreditation to student aid after World War II.

鈥淚f the student picks a school that鈥檚 not accredited by a recognized accreditor, they can鈥檛 spend any federal aid there,鈥� Friis said. 鈥淎ccreditation has become the 鈥榞ood housekeeping seal of approval.鈥欌��

What鈥檚 next for the new accreditor

Dan Harrison, who is leading the startup phase of the Commission for Public Higher Education, described accreditation as 鈥渢he plumbing of the whole higher ed infrastructure.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 not dramatic. It鈥檚 not meant to be partisan. But it鈥檚 critical to how schools function,鈥� said Harrison, who is the University of North Carolina System鈥檚 vice president for academic affairs.

Though the founding schools of the new commission are all in the South, Harrison said, he expects accreditation to shift away from the long-standing geography-based model. In the past, universities in the South were accredited by SACSCOC simply because of location. In the future, he said, public universities across the country might instead be grouped together because they share similar governance structures, funding constraints and oversight.

鈥淚n 2025, if you were designing accreditation from scratch, you wouldn鈥檛 build it around geography,鈥� Harrison said. 鈥淧ublic universities have more in common with each other across states than they do with private or for-profit institutions in their own backyard.鈥�

The Commission for Public Higher Education opened with an initial cohort capped at 10 institutions within the first six states. Harrison said that based on the interest, the group could have accepted 15 to 20.

鈥淚 thought we鈥檇 be at six or seven. We reached 10 quickly and across a wider range of institutions than expected,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e already have an applicant outside the founding systems. That鈥檚 well ahead of where I thought we would be.鈥�

That early interest, he said, reflects frustration among public institutions around finances. In particular, public universities are mandated to undergo audits from the state, but also feel burdened by audits required by accreditors.

鈥淧ublic universities already undergo multiple audits and state budget oversight,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen accreditation requires them to do the same work again. It feels like reinventing the wheel and it pulls faculty and staff away from teaching and research.鈥�

Harrison estimates it will take five to seven years for the new accreditor to be fully up and running, and that institutions will need to maintain dual accreditation to avoid risking Pell Grants and federal loans.

The commission is busypeer review teams made up primarily of current and former public university leaders such as governing board members, system chancellors, provosts, chief financial officers, deans and faculty. In contrast to regional accreditors, which typically draw reviewers from both public and private institutions, the new commission is prioritizing reviewers from public universities.

鈥淯ltimately, we want to be a true nationwide accreditor,鈥� Harrison said. 鈥淣ot a regional one. Not a partisan one. Just one that is organized around sector and peer expertise.鈥�

While the creation of a public university accreditor is new, the concept of sector-specific accreditation exists in other parts of higher education, including for two-year colleges.

Mac Powell, president of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, said that tailoring accreditation to a sector can make the peer-review model more meaningful, because reviewers can identify with similar challenges. He said reviewers have been moving away from measuring resources and bureaucratic compliance toward assessing what students actually get out of their education.

鈥淭he big shift was moving from counting inputs to asking, 鈥楧id students actually learn what we said they would learn?鈥欌�� said Powell, whose organization accredits 138 colleges across Arizona, California, New York and the Pacific.

The most important metric all accreditation models should value is how they transition their students into the workforce, he said.

鈥淓very accreditor today is paying much more attention to retention, persistence, transfer, career outcomes and return on investment,鈥� Powell said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 becoming less about how many books are in the library and more about whether students can find a pathway to the middle class.鈥�

The institution evolves

Stephen Pruitt is in his first year as the president of SACSCOC, the accreditation organization that the half-dozen Southern state university systems just left. Pruitt, a Georgia native, jokes that his 鈥淪outhern accent and front-porch style鈥� has helped him break down the importance of accreditation to just about anyone.

In simple terms, he said, accreditation is the system that makes college degrees real. But he feels he has to clarify a misconception about the role of accreditation agencies like SACSCOC.

鈥淭here鈥檚 this myth that I鈥檓 sitting in Atlanta deciding if institutions are good or not,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 not how American accreditation works. Your peers evaluate you. People who do the same work you do.鈥�

At the same time, Pruitt isn鈥檛 dismissing the concerns that prompted states such as Florida and North Carolina to explore alternatives to SACSCOC. According to Pruitt, institutions have long raised concerns about slow turnaround times, redundant paperwork and standards that have not always adapted quickly to the evolving landscape in higher education.

鈥淪ome of the frustration is real. Institutions want less redundancy and more responsiveness. Competition isn鈥檛 something we鈥檙e afraid of,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing a full audit of our processes. We have to be more contemporary. Faster approvals, more flexibility, more transparency. Accreditation shouldn鈥檛 just be the stick. It should be the carrot too.鈥�

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鈥淢y mind was blown,鈥� said Fagerburg. 鈥淚 had no idea education could be this good.鈥�

She applied to open her own Acton Academy, and was accepted into the fast-growing network of approximately 300 independently-operated schools, emphasizing learner-driven education. Fagerburg launched last fall with 13 students, including four of her own children. Today, she has 26 K-6 students enrolled in her secular microschool, with plans to add a middle school and high school program in the coming years. 鈥淧arents want this. They love it,鈥� said Fagerburg, adding that some families drive up to 45 minutes each way for their children to attend her program. 

She says she sees enormous demand for the Acton Academy model, and hopes to open more locations in Tennessee, but access is a key concern. 鈥淚 grew up poor,鈥� said Fagerburg. 鈥淚 never would have been able to attend a school like this.鈥� 

With the current expansion of school choice programs, such as Tennessee鈥檚 new universal education savings accounts (ESA), many more families are able to access innovative schools and learning models. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a complete game changer,鈥� said Fagerburg, explaining how the ESA program enables Tennessee families who previously had limited education choices to now use a portion of state-allocated education funding to select the school or learning space that is best for their child. 

But there鈥檚 a catch. In order to participate in Tennessee鈥檚 ESA program, Fagerburg鈥檚 school must be accredited, and its current accreditation by the , isn鈥檛 recognized by the state. 

That is why Fagerburg jumped at the opportunity to participate in a fledgling program offered through the (MSA), one of the four major K-12 accreditation entities, with 3,200 member schools worldwide. In with Stand Together Trust, MSA鈥檚 Next Generation Accreditation pilot program seeks to offer a faster, more affordable, and more flexible route toward accreditation for today鈥檚 emerging schools. 

鈥淲e created this flexible protocol around how a school actually works,鈥� said Christian Talbot, President and CEO of MSA. 鈥淭hat gives mostly microschools, but really any innovative school, the opportunity to tell their story with the production of evidence that makes the most sense to them.鈥� 

Talbot offered the example of a hypothetical urban 鈥減lace-based鈥� learning environment, with no designated school building and students taking classes at various museums, public parks, and historic sites throughout a city. 鈥淭hat school is going to have the opportunity to describe the learning environment in ways that existing accreditation protocols really don’t allow because you have to have a certificate of occupancy, or a lease, or some other thing that is tied to this mental model we have that school has to be in a building,鈥� said Talbot. 

He emphasized that these innovative schools are 鈥渕eeting all of the exact same standards of accreditation鈥� as conventional schools, but they are able to demonstrate these standards in ways that reflect the ingenuity of their models. 

MSA is the world鈥檚 second-oldest accrediting agency. It launched more than a century ago, as interest grew from schools and colleges for independent, third-party verifiers of quality. For higher education, accreditation eventually became a requirement for U.S. colleges and universities to participate in federal student financial aid programs, but at the K-12 level, mandatory accreditation is less common. 

Most states don鈥檛 require schools 鈥� public or private 鈥� to be accredited, but some schools choose to become accredited to earn an external 鈥渟eal of approval,鈥� which may help them to attract and retain students and educators. With the expansion of school-choice programs nationwide in recent years, certain states, such as Tennessee and Texas, require accreditation in order for a school to participate in these programs.

Cammy Herrera had been exploring the possibility of accreditation for her secular microschool , in Mansfield, Texas, well before the state introduced a new universal school-choice program this spring. A former public school teacher, Herrera had been running a licensed in-home preschool for more than a decade when she decided in 2021 to add a Montessori-inspired school-age program. She now serves over 50 students through middle school, with plans to open a high school if she can find a larger space to accommodate more students.

For Herrera, accreditation was appealing as a signal of quality, but she felt that most existing accrediting organizations took a traditional view of education that didn鈥檛 reflect her personalized, flexible approach. 

鈥淥ur school is so different. We are not trying to fit into a one-size-fits-all box when it comes to schooling,鈥� said Herrera, whose students are technically considered homeschoolers. They can attend her school full-time at an annual tuition of $10,250, or customize their enrollment based on their own learning needs. Tuition for Herrera鈥檚 two-day-a-week option is about $4,000 annually. 鈥淲hoever we get accredited through has to believe in our vision and has to be on board with what makes our school special because we don’t want our school to lose that special part that makes us different from a traditional school,鈥� she said. 

When Herrera learned about the MSA鈥檚 pilot accreditation program for microschools, she eagerly applied. Next Generation Accreditation would offer Herrera that third-party validation she has been seeking while retaining her program鈥檚 originality. It would also enable her to participate in Texas鈥檚 new school choice program, should she choose. 

MSA hopes to run the Next Generation Accreditation pilot with 10 to 15 innovative schools over the next several months to learn more about these schools鈥� distinct needs and structures, and then iterate and adapt protocols to provide a valuable accreditation pathway for today鈥檚 creative schooling models. 

As the creator of the Facebook group, Herrera sees mounting interest in microschooling and the diverse educational models and methods that the movement fosters. She thinks that accreditation options that reflect this diversity can be beneficial to founders and families who value that credential, or who need it to participate in certain school-choice programs. But she also warns of potential drawbacks: 鈥淭here are all these special schools, and if everybody has to follow the same standards to be accredited, then I think they’ll be more alike than different. That’s the only thing I could see being a downfall.鈥�

Disclosure: Stand Together Trust provides financial support to 社区黑料.