BATON ROUGE — Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order establishing a task force seeking public education reforms.

Landry announced Tuesday the group's first order of business is to join several southern states in a newly created accreditation system.

The executive order, which can be read in full here, outlines the Governor’s Task Force on Public Higher Education Reform's goal for Louisiana to join the Commission for Public Higher Education, an alternative to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

The CPHE is made up of the State University Systems of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and the Texas A&M University System and will be an alternative to what Landry called "the out-of-touch accreditation system."

The creation of an alternative accreditation system follows President Donald Trump's own executive order instituting overhauls of Department of Education policies. In May, department leadership said that they would be reviewing avenues for universities to receive multiple accreditations.

"This guidance also stated that Department guidance should allow institutions the freedom to develop unique partnerships with accrediting agencies," Landry's executive order said.

Landry's task force will help guide public policy and legislation to allow the state's public university systems to pursue membership in the CPHE, as well as develop plans to pilot dual accreditation for these schools.

“This task force will ensure Louisiana’s public universities move away from DEI-driven mandates and toward a system rooted in merit-based achievement,” Landry said.