Republican-controlled states are moving to rewrite higher education accreditation pathways by allowing public colleges to leave long-standing accreditors for newly formed entities. A key vehicle is the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE), which is financially backed by Florida and the Trump administration and overseen largely by state university system appointees. Under recent Florida statute, public colleges must switch accreditors by 2032, while states including Iowa and Louisiana have considered shifting public institutions toward CPHE. CPHE, formed last June by six public university systems in Republican-leaning states, is trying to accredit 10 colleges to start. Accreditation experts and higher ed advocates warn that placing the same state actors that regulate public colleges in a position to influence accreditation could create conflicts of interest and undermine academic freedom—echoing concerns raised by the American Association of University Professors’ Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom.