Governor DeSantis shows conservatives how to fight for higher education
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aNearly 50 years ago, the Supreme Court, controlled by far-left activists, created abortion rights out of nothing. Conservatives realized that for the rule of law to survive in America, it needed a sustained campaign to place conservative thinkers in the judiciary. Ten years later, the Federalist Society was founded. All Republican presidential candidates have begun pledging to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court.
Decades of hard work paid off when the court was overturned earlier this year Law vs Wade.
Conservatives now need to do to higher education what they did to the judiciary. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis points the way.
Last year, Florida State University was considering appointing DeSantis school board member Richard Corcoran, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, as president. An organization called Colleges sent a letter to FSU threatening FSU’s accreditation if it chose a new president with no academic background.
why is that important? Under federal law, students can only use government loans and grants at colleges and universities accredited by one of seven accrediting bodies identified by the Department of Education. No accreditation, no federal student loans or grants. Unless you’re turning down federal funding like Hillsdale College, this is a death sentence for any college.
SACSCOC essentially used its certifying powers as a veto over the FSU’s presidential elections. And it wasn’t the first time the SACSCOC abused this power. The same group used similar tactics to stop former Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue from becoming president of the Georgia State University system.
DeSantis fought back. He worked with the Florida Legislature to pass legislation requiring state universities to change accrediting bodies at the end of each accreditation cycle. DeSantis was essentially seeking to free all Florida institutions of higher education from his SACSCOC veto of school leadership.
Officials at President Joe Biden’s Department of Education are not happy with DeSantis’ efforts to escape SACSCOC’s control. They issued new guidance stating that all universities must maintain relationships with their current accrediting bodies. It’s unclear what DeSantis can or intends to do as governor to fight back against the Biden administration’s efforts to maintain the higher education status quo, but the higher education status quo works for America. Is not.
Majority of citizens (61%) say higher education is going in the wrong directionHigher education has long been a haven for far-left ideologies that hate America and can’t find jobs elsewhere. In 1990, 42% of university faculty nationwide identified as leftist, while 18% identified as conservative. By 2016, 60% of his faculty identified him as leftist, while only 12% of his faculty said he was conservative..
No wonder A majority of Republicans now believe colleges are hurting the state of the country.
You don’t have to do it this way. Just as Republicans began appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court and waged a decades-long battle to achieve their goals, governors begin placing conservatives in leadership positions at public universities A key step in this process is dismantling the cartel of accreditation bodies. DeSantis seems to have been keenly aware of this even before he took office as governor. When he was in the House, he introduced federal legislation to do just that.
of DeSantis HERO act Authorizes the governor to create its own accreditation agency for the state. SACSCOC cannot exclude conservatives from leadership positions in higher education institutions.
Change doesn’t happen overnight. It took decades of electoral and confirmation victories before the judiciary became more reflective of the nation’s true values. But in the end the conservatives won. And they can win again.
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