Drawing the Line: Chiropractic’s Fight for Educational Freedom
Originally published: 2025-07-19
A Movement, Not an Organization
In a forceful and passionate presentation, Dr. Steve Tullius of the Chiropractic Freedom Coalition made it crystal clear: the chiropractic profession has reached a tipping point. Delivered against the backdrop of the July 11, 2025 Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) meeting—where the Coalition submitted testimony challenging the legitimacy of the current accreditation regime—Tullius’s message was both a battle cry and a wake-up call.
Framed around a historical reckoning with how the chiropractic cartel seized control of the profession in 1974 through the federal recognition of the CCE, Tullius outlined how that moment gave rise to an unaccountable, monopolistic triad: the CCE (accreditation), NBCE (testing), and FCLB (enforcement). That unholy alliance hijacked the curriculum, marginalized subluxation-centered education, and forced principled schools to either conform or close.
“We didn’t just lose institutions. We lost our identity.”
The Chiropractic Freedom Coalition is positioning itself as the antidote to that loss.
“We are not an organization. We are a movement—and we need you.”
Centralization of NBCE Part IV: The Breaking Point
At the center of today’s storm is the NBCE’s plan to centralize Part IV testing in Greeley, Colorado beginning in 2026, a move that Tullius declared “a massive overstep” and “potentially illegal.” No other major healthcare profession requires a centralized, high-stakes practical exam administered by an unaccountable private corporation. Medical doctors don’t. Osteopaths don’t. Yet chiropractic students are expected to travel across the country—at great cost—to satisfy an outdated requirement never vetted by state boards or the CCE.
And now, under CCE Policy 56, schools like Life University are requiring students to pass all NBCE exams before graduation, making NBCE's private tests a de facto gateway to a diploma. The cartel has closed the loop: control education, control licensure, and control the profession.
The Coalition’s Mission: Freedom Through Action
Tullius laid out the Coalition’s three core objectives—each one a direct countermeasure to the cartel’s mechanisms of control:
Securing federal recognition for a second accrediting body (The International Agency for Chiropractic Evaluation, or IACE).
Eliminating monopolistic CCE- and NBCE-only language from state laws and regulations.
Preserving the drugless nature of chiropractic as a separate and distinct healing art.
This vision is already in motion. The Coalition's legal, legislative, and regulatory teams are actively working across states and federal channels to reclaim autonomy for the profession.
“This is about truth. It's about legacy. It's about generations.”
Why Now? The Political and Legal Window
As the presentation emphasized, now is the opportune moment. The U.S. Department of Education recently issued new guidance encouraging decentralization and enabling new accrediting bodies to gain recognition. And on March 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at dismantling the federal Department of Education and returning authority to the states.
This opening has created the conditions needed for IACE to apply for federal recognition—and for the profession to finally break free from the monopolistic grip of the CCE and NBCE.
A Call to Action: Join or Stand Aside
“Imagine not having the right to practice. That’s what’s at stake.”
With those words, Tullius reminded the profession what is really on the line—not just educational reform or licensing fairness, but the future of chiropractic as a philosophy, a science, and an art.
Whether you’re a student, educator, practitioner, or leader, the choice is now unavoidable.
“This is the line. You're either with us or you're against us.”
The Coalition is calling for full participation: sign the petition to stop Part IV centralization, become a member or donor, and join one of five strategic teams already at work.
This Is the Moment
With the July 11 CCE meeting now in the rearview mirror, and with Part IV centralization looming in 2026, there is no more time to wait. The Chiropractic Freedom Coalition isn’t asking permission. It’s demanding change.
“This isn’t about organizations. This is about mission.”
This isn’t just another political struggle within the profession. It’s an existential fight over who decides the future of chiropractic—bureaucrats and boards, or the chiropractors who live and breathe this work every day.
History will not look kindly on those who stayed silent.
Final Call to Action:
We can do this. But only if we do it together.
