Hillsborough schools seek reaccreditation. Is it worth the cost?
Tampa Bay Times | By: Jeffrey S. Solochek and Divya Kumar | July 16, 2026
The big story: The Hillsborough County school board has renewed its annual membership with Cognia, an accrediting body the school district is mid-cycle with, for a fee of more than $300,000.
The vote earlier this week was unanimous.
But as anti-accreditation sentiment has grown among state leaders, and the district is not required to be accredited, board member Patti Rendon posed the question: Why?
“The laws and standards in the state of Florida have changed, and we’re no longer required to be accredited,” Rendon said. “Nobody can really give me a good, valid reason why we’re spending the money to be accredited when accreditation means nothing.”
Hillsborough schools have been accredited since 1914, and the district has been accredited since 2010. Officials said the state’s 10 largest districts still go through accreditation and the progress reports are used to monitor their own work.
If the district were to opt out of accreditation, superintendent Van Ayres said, the board would need to direct him to do so and call a workshop on the matter.
That didn’t happen. Other board members said they saw value in remaining accredited.
Board member Nadia Combs said the external evaluator provides public confidence. The accrediting body works with more than 40,000 school systems in 90 countries, she said, offering useful points of comparison.
“I am not going to be in a fishbowl and think that we’re doing so great when we’re not really, compared to nationally,” she said.
Board member Stacy Hahn added that parents often look for accreditation when choosing a school for their kids.
“There are certain accreditations that definitely kind of make you stand out from the pack,” she said. “Maybe not every parent looks at that, or every stakeholder, but accreditations don’t have to be required to have value.”
