Louisiana joins Southern states in building new accreditor to challenge DEI dominance
Louisiana plans to join six other Southern states in creating a new accreditation agency to combat Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Tuesday, establishing the Task Force on Public Higher Education Reform to collaborate with the newly created Commission for Public Higher Education.
Louisiana plans to join six other Southern states in creating a new accreditation agency to combat Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order on Tuesday, establishing the Task Force on Public Higher Education Reform to collaborate with the newly created Commission for Public Higher Education.
“This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward a system rooted in merit-based achievement,” the governor said in a statement on X.
Today, we announced Louisiana is joining other southern states in establishing an alternative accreditation system.
This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward a system rooted in merit-based achievement. pic.twitter.com/tWkUl6lXCB— Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) July 22, 2025
The task force, comprising 13 members, will report to the governor by Jan. 30, 2026. Louisiana is currently accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.
As Campus Reform reported last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a new accreditation agency alongside five other Southern university systems.
DeSantis said at the time that the institution’s purpose is to challenge the “activist-controlled accreditation monopoly” that upholds DEI practices, rather than targeting them in line with federal and state policies.
According to a DeSantis press release, the new accreditation agency will “offer an alternative that will break the ideological stronghold.”
DeSantis also accused accreditation agencies of being “woke accreditation cartels,” focused on “ideological fads.”
President Trump signed an executive order in April aimed at reforming accreditation agencies to enforce his administration’s anti-DEI policies more efficiently.
“Some accreditors make the adoption of unlawfully discriminatory practices a formal standard of accreditation, and therefore a condition of accessing Federal aid, through ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or ‘DEI’-based standards of accreditation,” the order says.
“Accreditors have also abused their governance standards to intrude on State and local authority,” it states.
Among other things, the president used the order to instruct the secretary of education to “resume recognizing new accreditors to increase competition and accountability in promoting high-quality, high-value academic programs focused on student outcomes.”
Gov. Landry’s July 22 executive order explicitly mentions the president’s document.
Campus Reform contacted Gov. Landry’s office for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
