A report from the American Principles Project (APP) found that the Biden administration issued the majority of its enforcement action against Christian universities and career schools, despite these institutions representing less than 10% of U.S. students.
APP Policy Director Jon Schweppe said in a statement accompanying the report’s release, “For the last four years, Democrats have been busy 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.”
“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 said.”
“During his first term, President Donald Trump deprioritized the Enforcement Office, and his next administration should eliminate it,” Schweppe continued. “APP looks forward to working with the Trump-Vance administration and Republican leaders to end the Democrats’ years-long campaign to control and eliminate faith-based universities once and for all.”
Two of the most prominent Christian universities in the U.S., Grand Canyon University (GCU) and Liberty University, faced record-level fines worth more than “all penalties imposed over the past seven years combined,” APP’s press release says. About 12 Christian colleges were specifically targeted.
“The average fine against a Christian school for a Clery Act violation was $815,000, compared to $228,571 against public and private institutions,” the release notes.
According to the report: “Enrollment at faith-based schools grew 82 percent between 1980 and 2020, about 44 percent faster than the national average. That doesn’t sit well with the Biden-Harris administration, which is 10 working hard to curb these trends and confine students into conventional four-year schools by limiting student choice.”
APP explained that while Christian schools have “received the largest fines and some of the most aggressive legal harassment from the Office of Enforcement,” virtually “no actions have been taken against public, private, and state-run schools, despite the fact public confidence in these institutions is at record lows…”
Interestingly, no Ivy League school has been subject to “punitive action by the Office of Enforcement,” the report states.
APP concluded its report by calling for Congress to hold “oversight hearings” and issue subpoenas for those involved in the enforcement office’s “unlawful actions.”
“The American people — among which there are more than 200 million Christians — deserve to hear the truth about this extremely important issue,” APP wrote. “And they certainly deserve assurances that this type of unfair discrimination will never happen again.”
An Education Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “school’s religious affiliation or non-profit status has absolutely no bearing on our oversight and enforcement actions,” adding that APP’s report “pushes a false narrative by distorting information released publicly by the Department.”