Senator Shelley Moore Capito drilled the U.S, Education secretary on the oversight of how colleges are handling protests on their campuses.
“I want to ask you to take action to protect Jewish students and restore order on college campuses across America. Discrimination based on national origin violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and your department is required to enforce the law,” Capito, R-W.Va., said to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona today.
Capito also questioned Cardona about sluggish progress on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
This all took place Tuesday morning during a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. Capito is the ranking Republican on the panel.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is also on the panel and offered criticism to Cardona about yet another topic, student loan forgiveness.
College campuses across the country have been roiled by protests of how Israel’s operations in Gaza are being conducted. In most cases, protesters are pushing college officials to “divest” from companies that do business with Israel or that could benefit financially from the military operations.
Typically that refers to college endowments that are invested in stocks, bonds or other financial instruments.
Protests have involved encampments or, at Columbia University in New York, occupying a building. Some of the statements, chants and signage have been criticized as crossing into antisemitism.
That’s what Capito and other senators on the panel wanted to know about, asking Cardona what his agency is doing to ensure college officials protect Jewish students. Cardona has already made official statements to say “This Department of Education won’t tolerate hate, discrimination, and threats of violence that target students because of who they are.”
Capito commented, “No student should feel unsafe on their campus. Yet just last week, Columbia University had to move classes online and Jewish students were told by a campus rabbi to go home because it was no longer safe for them on their campus. And late last night, protesters took over Hamilton hall on campus and the university is locked down today with access limited to only residential students.”
She asked, “Do you believe what is happening to Jewish students at Columbia and other colleges and universities across this country is OK?”
Cardona responded that it is not OK.
“I think what’s happening on our campuses is abhorrent; hate has no place on our campuses and I’m very concerned with the reports of antisemitism. I’ve spoken to Jewish students who have feared going to class as a result of some of the harassment that they’re facing on campuses.”
He went on to refer to a Department of Education statement “that being unsafe on campus is not going to be tolerated and that we do not condone and we definitely reject any calls for genocide or any calls for antisemitism or any antisemitism on campus.”
FAFSA
Capito went on to ask about FAFSA, the financial aid program for higher education that has been rocked by frustrating delays and technical problems. Capito displayed a chart showing that FAFSA completion is down 36% nationally among freshmen and down 40% for West Virginia high school students.
“Have you apologized?” Capito asked. “Have you said ‘We know we’ve really screwed this up and we need to make it better not just for the students but the institutions as well?'”
Cardona said he has offered apologies. “I’ve spoken to parents and students directly. I’ve sat with them while they’re filling out FAFSA,” Cardona said, also referring to attempts to improve the process, getting the application process down to 15 minutes and improving processing to the point that if a student applies today then colleges would have the information by Friday.
He added, “I would welcome an opportunity to engage with folks in West Virginia, to share the strategies that we’re doing. And I would love together with you to make sure West Virginians have access to higher education.”
Student loan forgiveness
Manchin used his time for criticism of the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness policies. Manchin spoke favorably about ways to reduce debt through work programs, but he said that is not what the administration is pursuing. He also advocated financial literacy programs for students taking out loans.
“We’re spending more on giving money away than we ever did on education. It makes no sense to me at all, and you have done nothing as the Department of Education showing me how I can take this burden off of me while I still get paid and I’m contributing to society,” Manchin said.
With some loans, Manchin said, “They think it’s all free money because they have no payments at all; there’s no accrued interest whatsoever. But when it comes time to pay the piper it hits them hard because we don’t require any financial interest on the front end. This is stupid and we just keep piling it on like there’s no end to it.”