A new report by the American Principles Project (APP) showed that nearly 70% of fines and enforcement by President Joe Biden's Education Department (ED) targeted Christian and career schools even though less than 10% of students attend these schools.
The report termed enforcement efforts as a "weaponization" of the ED, similar to how other agencies have targeted conservatives and other right-leaning groups.
"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," APP Policy Director Jon Schweppe said.
"As our report details, the Biden-Harris Department of Education has been engaged in a long-running scheme to punish Christian colleges that are ideologically opposed to the left’s agenda. The unfair targeting of these institutions has been egregious, and it needs to stop immediately," he added.
Two of the largest and most prominent Christian universities, Liberty University and Grand Canyon University faced "larger fines than all of the past seven years combined."
This includes the $2.4 million imposed on Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky sex crimes against students and the $4.5 million imposed on Michigan University for Larry Nassau's crimes against gymnasts, including some Olympic contenders.
GCU is appealing a $37.7 million fine for supposedly misleading students about the cost of its doctoral programs.
Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in April that he would shut down GCU and called it a "predatory" school that took advantage of first-generation college students.
According to the report, at "least 12 Christian colleges have been the target of excessive penalties or banned from receiving federal student aid; by comparison, no Ivy League school has been the recipient of punitive action by the Office of Enforcement."
"The average fine against a Christian school for a Clery Act violation was $815,000, compared to $228,571 against public and private institutions," it said.
Of course, the Biden administration knows that Christian and career schools are less likely to be on board with its woke agenda, so it's doing everything it can to put those schools out of commission.
GCU recently had to defend its non-profit status in court and was able to successfully do so.
The court ruled unanimously that the ED applied an incorrect standard when denying the school non-profit status. The Arizona Board for Private Postsecondary Education, the Internal Revenue Service, the State of Arizona and the Higher Learning Commission all approved GCU's non-profit status before the ED ruled against it.
