US Dept. of Education Fines Grand Canyon University $37.7M

Facts

• The US Dept. of Education (DOE) on Tuesday announced it has fined Grand Canyon University (GCU), the largest Christian university in the country, $37.7M over accusations it misled students about the cost of its graduate programs.¹
• In addition to the fine — which is the largest of its kind ever levied by the DOE — the agency added a provision to the agreement that allows the Arizona-based school to participate in federal student aid programs.²
• GCU must engage a monitor to ensure its advertising complies with federal law, the school must report future investigations or lawsuits to the agency, and doctoral students must be notified by the school about how to file a complaint with federal officials.²
• The DOE said its investigation found GCU advertised its doctoral programs as costing between $40-49K, but 98% of GCU graduates paid up to $12K more because they were required to take more courses to meet their dissertation requirements.³
• The school has denied the accusations and in turn, has accused the DOE of unfairly targeting GCU because of an ongoing conflict over its nonprofit status.⁴

Sources: ¹Associated Press, ²The Arizona Republic, ³Washington Post and ⁴Forbes.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Yahoo Finance. The Biden administration previously forgave tens of billions of dollars in student debt, and cracking down on for-profit institutions that defraud students is another part of solving the country’s higher education crisis. GCU must pay for its costly lies and deceptions.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by The Daily Signal. This regulatory harassment of GCU must stop. But the Dept. of Education — which is the only government entity that doesn’t recognize GCU as a nonprofit — is carrying on with its agenda and hatred of profit in education and making an example of GCU. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the administration has chosen a large Christian institution for this exercise.