Janelle Irwin Taylor
Two Republican lawmakers have filed identical bills in the House and Senate for the 2025 Session seeking to add more transparency to nonpublic postsecondary educational institutions.
The bills, filed by Sen. Ana Maria Rodriquez (SB 46) and Rep. John Temple (HB 125), would remove provisions exempting religious colleges from the list of institutions under the jurisdiction of the Commission for Independent Education. The Commission licenses qualifying private colleges and universities and works to uphold consumer protection, improve programs, implement institutional policies and manage data.
While the bills would add religious private schools to the Commission’s jurisdiction, such colleges and universities could exempt themselves from licensure under the proposed legislation. The bills call for religious institutions to provide an annual sworn affidavit to the Commission including the school’s name, which must include a religious modifier, and degree programs in religious vocations in order to be exempt from licensure.
Each degree offered would also have to include a religious modifier, with the goal being to distinguish religious institutions from secular ones.
“The Legislature intends that this section aid in protecting the integrity of degrees, diplomas, and other educational credentials offered by nonpublic religious postsecondary educational institutions by providing for the evaluation of minimum educational requirements to prohibit the granting of false or misleading educational credentials and to prohibit misleading literature, advertising, solicitation, or representations by nonpublic religious postsecondary educational institutions or their agents,” the bill reads.
Under the bill, private religious schools can offer associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees in arts and science, and doctorates in philosophy (Ph.D.) and education (Ed.D.) as long as the degrees contain religious modifiers.
The bill includes methods for verifying compliance with terms, including self-reporting or third-party reviews by a designated religious nongovernmental education association. It also provides a process for notifying schools of compliance or noncompliance, and includes remedies for noncompliance within 45 days of review.
The legislation also provides for strict penalties for continued noncompliance, including shutting down the institution or criminal penalties in certain situations, such as against individuals found responsible for making false affidavits.
The bill would also authorize the Commission to adopt rules to implement the new law.
If passed, the measure would become effective Oct. 1.
Some of the language in the bills is already present in Florida statute, but that statute exempts such religious private institutions from the Commission’s purview entirely. This bill would put such schools under the Commission’s purview, but would allow them to continue without licensure if the listed exemptions are met. The bill would allow more oversight on religious institutions by ensuring terms are met, though would still allow them to operate independent of most government oversight.
The Senate bill has been referred to three committees — Education Postsecondary, the Appropriations Committee on Higher Education, and Rules — while the House bill has been referred to two committees — the Education Administration Subcommittee and the Education and Employment Committee.
