Good News! The Education department has rescinded an unjust fine against one of America’s largest Christian universities. Campus Reform reports that the “U.S. Department of Education has retracted a $37.7 million dollar fine levied against Grand Canyon University (GCU) in Arizona following wrongful accusations that the school had misled students regarding the cost of tuition….the fine was the largest of its kind ever imposed by the department on any university.”
The Biden administration imposed the fine in October 2023, claiming many GCU doctoral students paid over $10,000 more to complete their degree than they had initially anticipated. GCU legally challenged “the punishment, stressing its commitment to providing what other auditors previously described as ‘robust and thorough’ cost disclosure practices.” Questions arose about the Biden “administration’s motive behind imposing such a fine,” given the fact that “another Christian school, Liberty University” was similarly being threatened with “a similar fine” by the Education Department, even as non-religious colleges were left alone by the Education Department despite routinely charging students more than they expected.
Under the Trump administration, Education Department spokeswoman confirmed the accuracy of these suspicions about the discriminatory
fine, stating after the reversal that the department is committed under the Trump Administration to not “persecut[ing] and prosecut[ing]” schools based on religious beliefs.
“Department enforcement will be for the purpose of serving students, not political bias,” Keast stated.
The claim was also dismissed with prejudice, preventing future department heads from revisiting it in the future.
The Education Department has a history of targeting religious universities.
Federal Trade Commission Senior Policy Advisor Jon Schweppe published a report in November 2024 which found that 70 percent of penalties imposed by the department on colleges and universities were levied against Christian colleges—raising questions about the department’s stated non-partisan goals.
Schweppe told Campus Reform that he sharply disapproved of the department’s actions, calling for increased accountability and immediate change.
“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,” he remarked. “The unfair targeting of these institutions has been egregious, and it needs to stop immediately.”
Back in 2024, Schweppe took issue with the Biden administration’s fine on Grand Canyon University, saying that the Biden administration’s claims about the university
don’t seem to hold water within our judicial system, as a federal court already dismissed similar claims [against Grand Canyon University] in a suit brought by a plaintiff against the school. Separately, a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “Biden’s Regulators Gang Up on a Christian College” notes that USED’s allegation “appears to be false [and] doctoral students comprise fewer than 5 percent of GCU’s enrollment.”
The $37.7 million dollar fine for comparatively minor allegations by a Christian school is a bit ironic compared to other fines issued by USDE. Don’t forget — the Department [of Education] only fined Michigan State $4.5 million for underreporting sex crimes, including abuse of hundreds of women by former team doctor, Larry Nassar.
