This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Federal bureaucrats consider being "private, Christian, and affordable," for an institution of higher education, to be 10 times worse than concealing sex offenders.
At least that's the conclusion from officials at the Goldwater Institute, who are demanding information about the Biden Department of Education's agenda against Grand Canyon University of Phoenix, and say a lawsuit will follow if the immediate results aren't satisfactory.
Jon Riches and Matta Beienburg of Goldwater have written a commentary explaining the government's move, a $37.7 million fine, against the Christian organization.
"In its latest assault on institutions that fail to adhere to its ideological bent, the Biden administration just imposed the largest fine in the history of the U.S. Department of Education on Grand Canyon University (GCU) — a school whose motto is 'private, Christian, and affordable.' And incredibly, the penalty is 10 times bigger than that levied against schools who covered up some of the worst sex offenders in U.S. history," they explain.
But by "any metric," the school is a success story, having grown from a tiny school with fewer than 1,000 students to one of the largest private schools in the country and offering degrees in "every conceivable discipline."
And that happened "all without raising tuition on students in over 15 years," they explained.
The Goldwater Institute now is demanding the Department of Education turn over public records of its "collusion."
It comes from the Department of Education, run by Richard Cordray, who was described as an "acolyte" of the extreme leftist Elizabeth Warren, a senator from Massachusetts.
The institute reports he "took power at the department and he and his cronies made it a mission to destroy institutions that do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy at government-run schools."
Those almost exclusively are far-left, adopting the woke ideology of diversity, equity, inclusion, and racism.
The institute explained the effort right now is to obtain public records of the government's "collusion," or a lawsuit will follow.
The commentary said the substance of the government's claim is that "the mostly highly educated students at GCU can't read tuition brochures. Essentially, the Biden administration's claim is that the school didn't provide information about the need for graduate students to take continuing education courses.
"The department has not cited any student complaints, but instead made a number of conclusory statements that do not appear to be supported by actual facts," the institute said.
That's a routine strategy now for the Biden administration now, as Democrats in power in New York now are running a war against President Donald Trump, in their court system, over his businesses even though there had been no complaint raised about those operations, and bankers in fact have testified all was routine.
The institute reported, "The agency’s real motives are clear: Biden’s education bureaucrats are on a 'mission to destroy institutions that do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy at government-run schools.'"
The Goldwater Institute is "the nation’s preeminent liberty organization scoring real wins for freedom from coast to coast. We’re committed to empowering all Americans to live freer, happier lives, and we accomplish tangible results for liberty by working in state courts, legislatures, and communities nationwide to advance, defend, and strengthen the freedom guaranteed by the constitutions of the United States and the fifty states."
The commentary explained the feds' demands: "$37.7 million fine against GCU, the largest in agency history by a long shot. By way of comparison, the department assessed a $2.4 million fine against Penn State University for failing to report the crimes of serial pedophile and football coach Jerry Sandusky and a $4.5 million fine against Michigan State University when that school refused to address sexual assaults committed by now-disgraced team doctor Larry Nassar."
All because the school allegedly "violated federal disclosure laws by insufficiently disclosing to Ph.D. students that they may have to take continuing courses while completing their doctoral dissertations. In other words, the allegation is that the most highly educated students at GCU can’t read tuition brochures."
The commentary charged the Biden administration's lawfare against the school is "pretextual nonsense."
In fact, the commentary noted the department's "conclusory statements" would "in any other context … be considered defamations."
The commentary noted that the motivation is clear: "Even if they can’t prove their allegations against GCU, they intend for the process to be the punishment."
The commentary authors noted, "GCU deserves credit for standing up to the bullies in Washington against this extraordinary assault on higher education while continuing its efforts to educate America’s college students efficiently and inexpensively. "
The focal point of the dispute appears to be because of the wokeism imposed on government schools by the Biden administration, to the point that anti-Semitism is celebrated on campuses and conservatives are censored.
The commentary said, "This is a school that has found innovative solutions for everything from the nationwide nursing shortage to graduating students into high-demand and high-paying trade jobs. It has Division I athletics in dozens of sports and a thriving campus life with students dedicated to serving the surrounding neighborhood, which is economically distressed but substantially improving because of GCU’s presence. Its students graduate with less debt than an average student nationwide.
"By way of comparison, public universities nationwide have raised tuition on resident students by an average of more than 150% over the past two decades, despite benefiting from taxpayer-funded subsidies that GCU does not receive.
"Just don’t bother telling the woke Biden administration bureaucrats, who are apparently more concerned with indoctrination than with graduating successful students."
