Biden-Harris admin weaponized DOE, targeted Christian, career colleges with nearly 70% of enforcement: report

The Biden-Harris administration's Department of Education issued 70 percent of its enforcement actions on Christian universities and career schools, despite the fact that these faith-based institutions account for less than 10 percent of the US student population, a new report shows. 

The report from the American Principles Project (APP) found that "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." Among the colleges most heavily targeted include Grand Canyon University (GCU) and Liberty University (LU).

"The average fine against a Christian school for a Clery Act violation was $815,000, compared to $228,571 against public and private institutions," according to the report.

Jon Schweppe, APP's policy director, claimed Democrats under Biden have been "weaponizing every part of the federal government to target their opponents."

"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," Schweppe told Fox News. "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."

The report noted that Grand Canyon University and Liberty University received record fines totaling more than "all penalties imposed over the past seven years combined." In Nov. 2023, the DoE fined GCU $37.7 million for allegedly misleading students about the price of its doctoral programs. The Arizona-based university has filed an appeal. Biden's Education Secretary Miguel Cardona vowed to shut down the institution in April during a congressional hearing.

The Education Department rejected GCU's nonprofit designation after the state authorized it. The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed the decision. The case has been returned to the ED, which told Fox News in a statement that a "school's religious affiliation or non-profit status has absolutely no bearing on our oversight and enforcement actions."