website<\/u><\/a>. Its report was authored by the organization\u2019s policy director, Jon Schweppe.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe report states that ED\u2019s Office of Enforcement is the department\u2019s \u201cvehicle to target and penalize proprietary schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the report, the Office of Enforcement\u2019s three main tactics in its strategy for \u201cdismantling its targets\u201d are imposing penalties, \u201cscrutinize and fine\u201d investigations, and cutting off Title IV funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schweppe told The Center Square that in order to stop this weaponization against Christian and career schools, \u201cTrump’s [ED] can deprioritize the Office of Enforcement and temporarily halt existing enforcement proceedings while it investigates the depth of the Biden [ED\u2019s] unlawful discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to learn exactly what led to these disparities in enforcement \u2013 and who was responsible,\u201d Schweppe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe long-term goal should be to put rules in place to prevent this type of discrimination against Christian schools from ever happening again,\u201d Scweppe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked what the purpose of ED should be, Schweppe told TCS that \u201cmost conservatives will tell you that the Department of Education shouldn’t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we support any effort in Congress to shutter the Department, we believe Trump’s USED in the meantime should properly enforce federal civil rights law, undo the Obama\/Biden eras bureaucratic overreaches, and ultimately return as much power as possible to states and local school districts,\u201d Schweppe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Schweppe said that Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education is \u201cexactly the type of change agent we need to make American education great again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As examples of the disparity shown toward Christian schools via penalties and fines, the APP report stated that \u201cwithin the last year the Biden-Harris Department of Education imposed record fines against two of the nation\u2019s most prominent Christian universities \u2013 Grand Canyon University ($37.7 million) and Liberty University ($14 million).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese fines total more than all other penalties assessed by the Department of Education over the past seven years,\u201d according to the report, and the reasoning behind them was not substantial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
GCU\u2019s public relations executive director Bob Romantic told The Center Square that the school \u201clook[s] forward to an administration that, rather than using federal agencies to harass universities to which they are ideologically opposed, will reduce bureaucracy while applying regulations fairly and equitably.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When reached for comment, Liberty did not respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ED\u2019s attacks on career schools are nothing new. In 2015 and 2016 respectively, Corinthian Colleges, \u201conce the largest career-education institution in the country,\u201d and the ITT Technical Institute were forced to close after being \u201cfined and prevented from receiving financial aid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More recently, ED \u201chas cut off Title IV funding to 35 post-secondary schools\u201d over the past three years, 23 of which were career colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report additionally cited examples of Title IV funding being withheld from Christian colleges and universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUsing its scrutinize-and-sue tactics, the Department of Education can penalize and withhold federal aid to non-traditional schools,\u201d the report stated. \u201cWhen they go under, the administration can cancel students\u2019 loan debt, making good on its campaign promise. And, of course, students then have fewer higher education options, cornering the market for conventional universities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Office of Enforcement was \u201cdeprioritized\u201d under Trump until being \u201crestored\u201d under Biden in 2021, according to the APP report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2023, Biden \u201cincreased the Office of Enforcement\u2019s budget by nearly 600 percent,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
justthenews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nearly 70% of penalties imposed by the Office of Enforcement targeted Christian and career colleges that represent less than 10% of college students. Anew report highlights the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s disparity towards both Christian and career colleges through an \u201cobscure agency\u201d created by former President Barack Obama and revived under President Joe Biden: the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":36001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5781],"tags":[31678,24392,2677,10442],"class_list":["post-36000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-career-schools","tag-christian-schools","tag-ed","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36002,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36000\/revisions\/36002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}