Dive Temporary:
- Home Republicans intend to ramp up their oversight of schools in an effort to “maintain these universities accountable for his or her failure to guard Jewish college students,” Speaker Mike Johnson introduced Tuesday.
- Johnson stated a coalition of six Home committees will lead the scrutiny of universities’ federal funding and tax advantages. His workplace stated in a information launch that the committees will probe the worldwide pupil visa program, claiming with out proof that it has let college students “sympathetic to terrorist teams” attend U.S. schools.
- The inquiry comes amid rising pro-Palestinian protests calling on schools to divest from firms with hyperlinks to Israel in response to the nation’s warfare with Hamas and bombardment of Gaza. School administrations have diverged on the way to deal with protest encampments, with some reaching agreements with the activists and others bringing in police to have them arrested.
Dive Perception:
Tuesday’s announcement heightens the stakes schools face when making an attempt to guard free speech whereas curbing harassment on campus.
The coalition will embrace management from the Home Training and Workforce; Methods and Means; Vitality and Commerce; Judiciary; Oversight; and Science, Area and Know-how committees.
“Practically each committee right here has a task to play in these efforts to cease the insanity that has ensued,” Johnson stated in a press release. “The federal authorities performs a important position in larger schooling, and we are going to use all of the instruments accessible to us to handle this scourge.”
A number of presidents of outstanding universities have lately testified to Congress on how they’re dealing with antisemitism on campus — however their responses didn’t fulfill some lawmakers. In response, Republican legislators launched probes into the universities’ insurance policies, even earlier than this newest salvo from Johnson.
In December, the Republican-led Home schooling committee introduced it could examine disciplinary insurance policies at Harvard College, the College of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how after their leaders testified earlier than lawmakers on campus antisemitism. The committee later expanded the investigation to different schools.
In January, the Home Methods and Means Committee launched one other probe into the identical three establishments, together with Cornell College, over their responses to antisemitism on their campuses.
Rep. Jason Smith, Methods and Means chair, stated Tuesday that his committee has referred to as on the establishments to share what disciplinary motion they’ve taken in opposition to antisemitic exercise and to reveal funding acquired from overseas governments.
“Our investigation has already produced greater than 1,500 pages of paperwork that we are actually actively reviewing,” he stated in a press release.
Johnson final week visited Columbia College, an epicenter for the protests, and referred to as for Minouche Shafik, the establishment’s president, to resign. He was met with boos and pro-Palestian chants whereas talking in entrance of the campus library.
Columbia referred to as regulation enforcement onto its campus to filter encampments Tuesday. Police arrested tons of of protesters there and on the public Metropolis School of New York a mile northeast.
The Home coalition is important, Johnson stated, as a result of schools and “woke college presidents” have didn’t sufficiently cease the unfold of antisemitism.
Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, chair of the schooling committee, stated the investigation will give everybody affiliated with federally funded universities “a wholesome dose of actuality.”
“School shouldn’t be a park for play appearing juveniles or a battleground for radical activists,” Foxx stated in a press release.
Some critics of the coed protests have alleged they’ve been spurred by people unaffiliated with the universities the place they happen.
Turmoil in Congress might impede Johnson’s priorities, together with this coalition, as he might face a vote subsequent week searching for to take away him as Home Speaker.
