Try to imagine a world where the institutions educating college students are targeted simply because they don’t align with the government’s ideology. According to a damning report, that’s exactly what the Biden administration’s Department of Education has done, with Christian colleges bearing the brunt of its enforcement actions.
The American Principles Project (APP) published an eye-opening report exposing some troubling findings about the Education Department under the Biden administration. The agency’s Office of Enforcement has shown a clear bias in how it targets Christian colleges, penalizing them at unprecedented levels while using a far more lenient approach to secular and elite universities – even in the face of serious scandals.
The APP report showed that almost 70 percent of the Office of Enforcement’s penalties were imposed on Christian institutions even though these schools account for less than ten percent of the nation’s entire student population. The report looked at specific cases, including Grand Canyon University (GCU) and Liberty University.
“GCU’s and Liberty University’s fines are some of the largest fines ever issued by the Department,” the report noted.
Grand Canyon University (GCU), for instance, was fined a whopping $37.7 million—an amount exceeding all other penalties combined over the past seven years. The ED slapped the school with the hefty fine for supposedly misleading students about the cost of its doctoral program, a charge the university denies.
By way of comparison, the report notes that Penn State and Michigan State were fined $2.1 million and $4.5 million, respectively, for their roles in enabling sexual predators Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar. “The average fine against a Christian school for a Clery Act violation was $815,000, compared to $228,571 against public and private institutions,” the APP noted.
Apparently, these supposed violations are somehow worse when they involve a Christian institution, according to the Biden administration.
The report’s findings highlight a disturbing pattern of selective enforcement, with faith-based schools bearing the brunt of the penalties for alleged infractions while secular schools are not subject to the same level of scrutiny. GCU President Brian Mueller addressed the Biden administration’s assault on his institution during an interview with Fox News.
GCU President Brian Mueller was asked if he believes the federal government’s investigations are religiously motivated, to which he answered he hopes that is not the case.
“Well, they haven’t said it is, and I certainly haven’t said it is. And I hope that it’s not, but that the two largest Christian universities in the country are being investigated,” Mueller told Fox News Digital, referring to an ED probe into Liberty University in Virginia. “And so is that [a] coincidence? I don’t know.”
Yet, as RedState’s Margaret Clark pointed out, the ED has done little to address the rampant rise of antisemitism on college campuses across the country. Indeed, pro-Hamas activists have been allowed to stage demonstrations and even threaten Jewish students, all while publicly supporting a terrorist organization on campus. The response from President Joe Biden’s White House has been little more than a chorus of crickets.
The Biden administration’s antagonistic approach to Christian schools is part of a larger pattern of weaponizing the government against Christians and conservatives. You might remember when the Justice Department infamously targeted parents attending school board meetings and voicing their concerns about the political and sexual material being infused into government-run classrooms. The agency colluded with a major teachers union to label these people as “domestic terrorists.”
“While major assaults from agencies like the Department of Justice have taken most of the headlines, we should not ignore similarly corrupt efforts in other agencies as well,” said Jon Schweppe, APP’s director of policy.
The biased approach to Christian schools has real-life consequences for students who rely on these institutions for an affordable education that aligns with their religious values. Christian students choose these schools because of their focus on faith and preparing them for their careers.
By imposing crippling fines on Christian schools or revoking Title IV funding, the Biden administration threatens to jeopardize the futures of these students. “Losing access to Title IV funding can be ‘akin to a death sentence,’ especially for smaller schools that lack the financial resources of larger, well-established universities,” the report notes.
That seems to be the plan, does it not?
So what’s the solution?
We already know: Abolish the freaking Department of Education.
President-elect Donald Trump vowed to do away with this unnecessary agency on the campaign trail. If he delivers, it will prevent many of these government attacks on Christian institutions. By getting rid of the ED, states would be further empowered to oversee their own education systems.
Decentralizing education oversight would allow states to tailor policies to their communities’ unique needs and values without incessant federal meddling. It would mean the federal government would not be able to impose one-size-fits-all rules while targeting ideological opponents, which is precisely why Democrats oppose such a move.
This problem, like most others, would have never existed if the federal government had not been empowered to use its purse strings to rule over all 50 states and decide how they do education. The Education Department should never have been formed in the first place. Every time the federal government adds a new agency, it expands its power and ability to dictate policy to state and local governments. It is time to start shrinking the power of the state. The Education Department is a great place to start.
