Cardona defends a stretched-thin civil rights office in hearing on campus unrest

In a roughly three-minute-long opening statement in front of Senate appropriators, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona mentioned nearly every major issue in higher education today — except campus unrest.

Only after Republican nudging did Cardona address the protests, encampments and antisemitism at campuses across the country and what his department is doing to support students.

“You have more immediate means at your disposal. For instance, removing federal funds from institutions that get federal funds ... if they’re in violation of Title VI,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told Cardona during a Tuesday Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “Are you intending to do that?”

“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,” Cardona told Capito, later adding: “Ultimately, if a school refuses to comply with Title VI, yes, we would remove federal dollars.”

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the federal anti-discrimination law that bars discrimination based on shared ancestry, ethnic characteristics or national origin.

President Joe Biden’s education chief faced bipartisan wrangling from lawmakers in the upper chamber in a hearing about the president’s fiscal 2025 budget request. But it was the Education Department’s bungled rollout of the federal student aid form and the unrest gripping college campuses as anti-war protests rage around the country that were at the center of the hearing.

“I am also extremely concerned about the treatment of some Jewish students and faculty on far too many of our college campuses,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, the full Appropriation Committee's top Republican, said. “Under the civil rights law, the department has the authority to act on the complaints, and there are more than 100 investigations that have been filed since Oct. 7 of last year.”

A number of Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, in recent days have called on Cardona to cut off federal funds of colleges and universities for not cracking down hard enough on antisemitism.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber pressed Cardona in the hearing on how his department has responded to campus uproar.

“I would ask you to take action to protect our Jewish students and restore order on college campuses across America,” Moore Capito said in her opening remarks.

Twenty-seven GOP senators, including subcommittee ranking member Moore Capito and Labor-H Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Cardona and Attorney General Merrick Garland last week urging the department and federal law enforcement to “restore order” on college campuses. The senators suggested that the Education Department should revoke the visas of foreign nationals, such as exchange students, who have taken part in the protests.

Protests reached an inflection point after the appearance of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik before Congress nearly two weeks ago.

Pro-Palestinian student protesters occupied a building at Columbia University early Tuesday morning after law enforcement began suspending students Monday evening after negotiations between university officials and protesters broke down. At University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, university officials ordered students to disband their encampment early Tuesday morning or face arrest, suspension or possible expulsion. And dozens of protesters at the University of Texas, Austin were arrested on Monday, as local and state law enforcement clashed with demonstrators.

Concerns over the growing number of encampments and protests were bipartisan, but the panel’s top Democrat highlighted her support for increased dollars to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which handles Title VI complaints. The Education Department is asking for a $22 million increase in funding to its civil rights arm.

“In recent months, some have called for increased efforts to root out antisemitism in educational institutions, which I fully agree we must do,” Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) said in her opening remarks. “But they have then paradoxically called for cutting of funding for the very office that leads that work," she said. "To help eliminate all forms of discrimination we have to put our money where our mouth is.”

Cardona underscored a stretched-thin Office for Civil Rights in a fire of questions from Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, with the secretary noting that the number of cases the office is dealing with “has tripled since 2009 and we have 58 less people.”

Britt was dogged in questioning the secretary on if the administration thinks it’s upholding Title VI and whether phrases like “from the river to the sea” or “go back to Poland” directed at Jewish students are acceptable rhetoric.

“Do you think that allows for Jewish students to feel safe on campus?” Britt asked. “Do you think it’s OK to link arms and keep Jewish students from attending class? Do you think that’s OK?"

Cardona agreed those phrases weren’t acceptable. He also said the department has “a letter in draft” when asked by Britt what the agency was doing to address what’s going on at Columbia.

“We’re doing a lot,” Cardona said. “We have updated guidance. We have a letter in draft right now. We have increased Title VI investigations. We have open investigations.”

Senators press on federal student aid: Cardona also received plenty of bipartisan criticism and questions on the rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

“I have to tell you, Secretary Cardona, how disappointed I am in your leadership," Collins said. "What happened with the FAFSA system is simply inexcusable and inexplicable."

The Education Department began rolling out a revamped federal student aid form in December, weeks later than anticipated, after Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020. The new form has been riddled with processing and data errors.

Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, pressed Cardona to commit to the typical Oct. 1 launch of FAFSA this fall.

“Can you commit to an on time launch of the 25-26 FAFSA by Oct. 1 of this year? And will you commit that colleges will get all the data they need from the FAFSA as soon as the FAFSA is launched?” Baldwin asked.

“I can commit to make sure that we're moving all of our resources to make sure that we adhere to the timelines and do everything in our power to make sure not only that we're staying true to the timelines but also communicating with parents, students and schools,” Cardona said, adding: “That is our expectation to reach the Oct. 1 deadline.”

Cardona can still expect more criticism from Congress in the coming days: House education committee chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) announced the education secretary will testify at a May 7 panel hearing intended to examine his department’s policies.