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Lord, we come against the Biden administration's discrimination against Christian and career schools. We ask You to end this discrimination, protect the schools being targeted, and bring reform to the Department of Education.
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Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education has been unfairly targeting Christian and career schools. How can President Trump reverse this once he takes office?

(The Center Square) ā€“ A new report highlights the U.S. Department of Educationā€™s disparity towards both Christian and career colleges through an ā€œobscure agencyā€ created by former President Barack Obama and revived under President Joe Biden: the Office of Enforcement.

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The American Principles Projectā€™s (APP)Ā reportĀ revealed that ā€œnearly 70 percent of penalties imposed by the Office of Enforcement have been against Christian institutions and career colleges, even though these schools represent less than 10 percent of college students.ā€

When reached for comment, the Department of Education (ED) did not respond.

The APP is a pro-family group that fights to defend families politically in campaigns and elections, according to itsĀ website. Its report was authored by the organizationā€™s policy director, Jon Schweppe.

The report states that EDā€™s Office of Enforcement is the departmentā€™s ā€œvehicle to target and penalize proprietary schools.ā€

According to the report, the Office of Enforcementā€™s three main tactics in its strategy for ā€œdismantling its targetsā€ are imposing penalties, ā€œscrutinize and fineā€ investigations, and cutting off Title IV funding.

Schweppe told The Center Square that in order to stop this weaponization against Christian and career schools, ā€œTrump’s [ED] can deprioritize the Office of Enforcement and temporarily halt existing enforcement proceedings while it investigates the depth of the Biden [EDā€™s] unlawful discrimination.ā€

ā€œWe need to learn exactly what led to these disparities in enforcement ā€“ and who was responsible,ā€ Schweppe said.

ā€œThe long-term goal should be to put rules in place to prevent this type of discrimination against Christian schools from ever happening again,ā€ Scweppe said.

When asked what the purpose of ED should be, Schweppe told TCS that ā€œmost conservatives will tell you that the Department of Education shouldn’t exist.ā€

ā€œWhile 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,ā€ Schweppe said.

Schweppe said that Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education is ā€œexactly the type of change agent we need to make American education great again.ā€

As examples of the disparity shown toward Christian schools via penalties and fines, the APP report stated that ā€œwithin the last year the Biden-Harris Department of Education imposed record fines against two of the nationā€™s most prominent Christian universities ā€“ Grand Canyon University ($37.7 million) and Liberty University ($14 million).ā€

ā€œThese fines total more than all other penalties assessed by the Department of Education over the past seven years,ā€ according to the report, and the reasoning behind them was not substantial.

GCUā€™s public relations executive director Bob Romantic told The Center Square that the school ā€œlook[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.ā€

When reached for comment, Liberty did not respond.

EDā€™s attacks on career schools are nothing new. In 2015 and 2016 respectively, Corinthian Colleges, ā€œonce the largest career-education institution in the country,ā€ and the ITT Technical Institute were forced to close after being ā€œfined and prevented from receiving financial aid.ā€

More recently, ED ā€œhas cut off Title IV funding to 35 post-secondary schoolsā€ over the past three years, 23 of which were career colleges.

The report additionally cited examples of Title IV funding being withheld from Christian colleges and universities.

ā€œUsing its scrutinize-and-sue tactics, the Department of Education can penalize and withhold federal aid to non-traditional schools,ā€ the report stated. ā€œWhen they go under, the administration can cancel studentsā€™ loan debt, making good on its campaign promise. And, of course, students then have fewer higher education options, cornering the market for conventional universities.ā€

The Office of Enforcement was ā€œdeprioritizedā€ under Trump until being ā€œrestoredā€ under Biden in 2021, according to the APP report.

In 2023, Biden ā€œincreased the Office of Enforcementā€™s budget by nearly 600 percent,ā€ the report stated.

Share your prayers for the Department of Education and the nation’s Christian schools below.

Originally published at The Center Square. Used with permission. Photo Credit: GrandCanyonU – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17136617.

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RJ
December 17, 2024

DEAR LORD GOD
PLESE REMOVE THESE DEGENERATE PERVERTS FROM THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT, INDEED DESTROY THE EDUCATION DEPT, AS THEYā€™VE BEEN MISS EDUCATIN AND UNDER EDUCATING STUDENTS FOR GENERATIONS,
I ASK IN JESUSā€™ NAME
AMEN

10
LJW
December 17, 2024

Having a federal Depart of Ed is giving satan another way to attack those who worship God. Satan tricks the democrats and their followers into believing that the federal government has all the answers and can fix everything. They will force compliance with their beliefs ie obama created office of enforcement with the power to fine and withhold funds and I doubt without much due process. Oh yeah once they drive a school to close they then forgive the loans. There would be better ways over forgiving loans maybe a plan that would have school provide the promised education. There is more corruption in the liberal institutions than the ones targeted. We have too many federal agencies micromanaging every part of our lives. Get rid of D of E before President Trumpā€™s term is over and any other department that the states have the constitutional right to take care of. May God expose all the evils that are in our government from local to federal and help the righteous to remove them from office. Trust in God and His perfect plan. šŸ™šŸ˜‡šŸ™ā¤ļø

9
Daniel Felice
December 17, 2024

Christian schools, universities and colleges being pressured by the Biden administration is because the schools teach and preach the word of God. This present administration, (soon to be gone), and others in government wants complete control in all the people and freedom of speech, especially in Christianity. Itā€™s God they are attempting to condemn. But, brother grace of God, He knew, saw and cleansed house of the sickness of this present leadership for a time.
Now it is up to us a Christianā€™s to step forward, not being bench warmers, pray daily over the new leadership coming in in 2025 and continuing daily for the leadership to maintain Christian beliefs and follow the words of the constitution of the United States written back in the 1600ā€™s.

26
j
December 17, 2024

Hash tag FJB

T Mc
December 17, 2024

This article is pointless as it does not detail why the institutions were penalised. Were they engaged in dubious practice, misusing funds, money laundering or what. Don’t you know what Liberty was penalised for?

3
    Mary Beth S
    December 17, 2024

    I for one am ready for the federal intrusion into education to end – no more Dept. of Education! The state and local departments are perfectly capable of handling it, and would more likely reflect the wishes of ‘we the people’.
    I have a feeling that they were penalized for being Christian or career-oriented, rather than “secular and academic” in some way. But I would be interested in what they claim were the infractions.

    15
    Joshua Kemmerer
    December 17, 2024

    I agree, this article is missing some facts. I read an article about ITT Technical Institute, because I remember seeing their commercials and I haven’t seen anything from them recently. ITT Technical Institute has been shut down because they had predatory recruiting practices, and once they were banned from having federal aid, they went out of business.

    It would be good to know exactly why Liberty and GCU are being fined, even if the EDā€™s Office of Enforcement does not have the best intentions.

    5

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