The Biden administration’s latest student loan heist
Kaylee McGhee White
The Biden administration’s Education Department issued a record fine last week against Grand Canyon University, the nation’s largest Christian college.
The $37.7 million fine is the result of a department investigation that alleges Grand Canyon misrepresented the cost of its doctoral degree programs. The majority of doctoral students ended up paying on average $10,000 more for their degree than was advertised in order to complete their dissertation requirements, according to the Education Department.
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GCU, a private school, has denied the department’s charges and vowed to appeal the fine. It appears the facts are on its side. As the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial, GCU’s disclosures make clear that doctoral candidates must complete various continuation courses as part of their dissertation, and that these courses must be paid for in addition to the program itself. Psychology candidates, for example, are required to take on average nine continuation courses, which cost about $2,175 each. This additional cost is presented to applicants in GCU’s Degree Program Calculator.
The school claims the Biden administration’s fine is retaliatory, since GCU has been engaged in a legal battle against the Education Department over the agency’s refusal to recognize GCU as a nonprofit institution since 2021. Given the Biden administration’s tendency to use the full force of the government to punish dissenters and naysayers, whether they be faithful Catholics, concerned parents at local school board meetings, or social media users who dare to express contrary views, such retaliation wouldn’t be surprising.
It is also likely that the Education Department’s fine is part of the Biden administration’s effort to hijack the student loan process. Richard Cordray, chief operating officer of the department’s Federal Student Aid office, which conducted the investigation, all but admitted as much. “FSA takes its oversight responsibilities seriously. GCU’s lies harmed students, broke their trust, and led to unexpectedly high levels of student debt,” Cordray claimed.
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In other words, having failed to unilaterally wipe out billions of dollars of student loan debt on its own, the Biden administration is now trying to bully schools into doing it for them. Consider that GCU borrowers who believe they were misled by the university over the cost of their doctoral degree programs can now file a claim for relief with the Education Department under the borrower defense to repayment program — a program the administration has already used to “forgive” $127 billion in student loan debt since 2021.
But GCU is right about one thing: it’s not a coincidence that Biden’s Education Department would use this tactic on a private school first — and a Christian one at that.