Harvard University sued the federal government on Monday over threats to cut taxpayer funding to the school.
The lawsuit is the latest escalation in a growing feud between the Trump administration and the university. The government has put increasing pressure on the school over pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests that rocked the campus after the October 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel.
Last week, the Trump administration froze $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard. The administration is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/trump-administration-irate-at-harvard-will-pull-additional-1-billion-in-funding-8c209113" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> considering freezing another $1 billion in funding after the college administrators released a letter of demands from the government that government officials considered private correspondence amid the negotiations.
“The consequences of the government’s overreach will be severe and long-lasting,” Harvard President Alan Garber said in an open letter announcing the lawsuit.
Garber said the funding cuts would jeopardize the university’s research projects on childhood cancer.
“The Government has not – and cannot – identify any rational connection between antisemitism concerns and the medical, scientific, technological, and other research it has frozen that aims to save American lives, foster American success, preserve American security, and maintain America’s position as a global leader in innovation,” the <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Funding-Freeze-Order-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuit</a> says.
The Trump administration is leaning on Harvard and other universities, mostly elite Ivy League schools, to reform and restructure their administration over anti-Semitic incidents that have broken out on the campuses in recent years. The government’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism has led the push to crack down on the universities.
Harvard, the oldest and wealthiest university in the United States, has made an aggressive push to counter the administration after Columbia University agreed to demands from the government in the hopes of getting its government funding restored. Harvard’s antagonistic stance has frustrated officials in the administration.
“Instead of grandstanding, Harvard should focus on rebuilding confidence among all students, particularly Jewish students,” a White House spokesman said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal on Monday. “The White House remains open to dialogue, but serious changes are needed at Harvard.”
The Trump administration has threatened to go beyond Harvard’s access to federal funds, warning that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may strip the university of access to foreign exchange students, as well. DHS has also demanded that the university turn over records on its foreign exchange students accused of “illegal and violent activities.”
Treasury Department officials are also reportedly considering revoking the university’s nonprofit status.

Harvard seal

Harvard Sues To Restore Taxpayer Funding Frozen By Trump Admin

Education

Harvard University

Trump Administration

U.S.

The budget chair of a beleaguered $4 billion school system spent years pulling off a premeditated con to steal two airplanes worth $1.5 million, a new lawsuit filing alleges.
Kyle McDaniel, a member of Virginia&#8217;s Fairfax County School Board, was accused by his private-sector employer of using corporate credit cards to spend $150,000 on personal expenses, strip clubs, and his school board campaign, according to a lawsuit first reported by The Daily Wire earlier this month.
Now, that employer, Blue Label Aviation, added in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25903024-kylemcdanielamended/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">court documents obtained</a> by The Daily Wire that it has since discovered that McDaniel’s alleged fraud was significantly worse. It outlined methodical, years-long financial fraud that raises questions about how the all-Democrat school board could continue to let McDaniel oversee the finances of one of America’s largest school systems.
FCPS this month resorted to enlisting children to beg for more money, telling them the school system is in a <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/news/fcps-superintendent-warns-students-possible-cuts-budget-deadline-looms">financial crisis</a>, has already cut all non-essential services, and that if the county doesn’t steer unprecedented amounts of money to the schools, children will suffer. It gave them an activist <a href="https://www.fcps.edu/crossroads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“toolkit”</a> to pressure the leaders who disburse funding to the school system.
The amended complaint said that McDaniel owned an aviation company called Commonwealth Aviation Services. In March 2023, McDaniel struck a deal with the owner of another company, Aero Elite, to merge them into a new company called Blue Label. Virtually all of Commonwealth’s value came from the fact that it owned two planes, leading it to be valued at $1.5 million for purposes of the merger. But just before the deal went through, McDaniel secretly stripped its assets, changing the ownership of the planes to a different entity and essentially selling Blue Label an empty shell, the complaint says.
“As a direct and proximate result of McDaniel’s fraud in the inducement, the shareholders of Aero Elite, now shareholders of the Plaintiff, were duped into issuing stock to McDaniel and his father for essentially nothing, and the plaintiff was therefore damaged in the amount of $1,500,000.00,” the amended complaint said.
“McDaniel made fraudulent misrepresentations about the ownership of the aircraft which was a material fact and formed the basis of the merger. McDaniel secretly re-registered the aircraft into phony companies while negotiating the terms of the merger, knowing that the FAA registration process would take many months to complete and be listed on the FAA registry,” it continued.
Just before the deal went through, McDaniel used the Federal Aviation Administration&#8217;s database to re-register two Piper Archer airplanes to entities called N1463T LLC and N555AZ LLC – companies that did not even exist, it said. More than a year later, after Blue Label executives confronted McDaniel for separately allegedly using his corporate credit cards for huge sums of personal luxuries, McDaniel retroactively formed the LLCs “to match the names of the phony entities that he had registered the said aircraft to” and “listed his home address as the registered address.”
According to Virginia records, the LLCs were incorporated on February 9, 2025, shortly before the lawsuit was filed and just after Blue Label CEO Timothy Fisher confronted McDaniel on January 22, at which point &#8220;the defendant confessed&#8221; and said he &#8220;wanted a week&#8221; to have a lawyer review whether he would accept Fisher&#8217;s demands that he resign and turn over his corporate credit cards.
“McDaniel then started attempting to sell the aircraft to unknowing third parties. McDaniel’s actions constitute multiple acts of fraud, conversion of company assets and fraudulent misrepresentations,” it said.
Last week, Blue Label made a motion for a temporary injunction preventing McDaniel “from selling, transferring, conveying, re-registering, pledging, or encumbering the aircraft assets until a trial.”
<div id="attachment_903623" style="width: 877px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-903623" class="size-large wp-image-903623" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/mcdaniel2-867x576.jpg" alt="Kyle McDaniel" width="867" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/mcdaniel2-867x576.jpg 867w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/mcdaniel2-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/mcdaniel2-768x510.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/mcdaniel2.jpg 1030w" sizes="(max-width: 867px) 100vw, 867px" />Kyle McDaniel</div>
McDaniel ran with the endorsement from the Democratic Party, which he secured after claiming to be bisexual and attracting an early endorsement by a gay-rights group — despite being married to a woman and having children. He previously positioned himself as a Republican, and also knocked a Republican off the school board by running as an &#8220;independent,&#8221; serving as a spoiler.
He told voters that his aviation work was directly relevant to the school board job, answering the question, “Why should voters trust you?” with, “In my career field, aviation, there is zero tolerance for dishonesty because it can get people hurt. I bring this same approach to public service: I do not tolerate dishonesty.” He did not return a request for comment for this story.
McDaniel is an at-large member of the school board, representing 1.6 million people — twice as many as a congressman. He came in third in the race for three at-large seats in 2023.
Saundra Davis, a Republican now running for the Virginia House of Delegates, came in fourth in the school board race, meaning she would have been on the school board if McDaniel were not in the race. Davis told The Daily Wire that “it’s clear that this situation goes far beyond a personal or business dispute. If the details are accurate, they indicate a deliberate effort to mislead others in a high-stakes transaction, which is deeply troubling.&#8221;
She said one-party rule gave rise to a lack of accountability.
&#8220;At a minimum, Kyle McDaniel should be removed as chair of the $4 billion Fairfax County public school budget committee — though I’m not holding my breath, she said. “It is imperative that voters in Fairfax County begin to apply logic over emotion when choosing their elected officials. Blindly voting straight down a sample ballot is not the path to meaningful change in our county.”
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fairfax-school-board-member-embezzled-strip-clubs">initial lawsuit</a> said McDaniel was repeatedly caught billing personal expenses totaling more than $150,000 to his corporate credit card, including a local strip club, a strip club in New Orleans — where the school board traveled for a National School Board Association conference — and campaign expenses.
It said McDaniel confessed and repaid part of the funds, then did it again, only to admit it again and then do it again. The company’s board met to approve his resignation, but McDaniel refused to cooperate with removing his name from corporate bank accounts, the suit said. McDaniel also deleted all of his work emails and performed other “suspicious activity,” it added.

Kyle McDaniel / X

School Board Budget Chair Accused Of Scheming To Steal $1.5M Airplanes As District Pleads Poverty

Virginia

In 2007, when Hillary Clinton was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/26/us/politics/26DEBATE-TRANSCRIPT.html">asked</a> in a Democratic primary debate whether she would be comfortable having “King and King” — a children’s picture book about a prince who marries another man — read to her second-grade child as part of the school curriculum, she responded that it was a “matter of parental discretion.”
It’s remarkable how far off the deep end the Left has gone in just a few short years.
This week, the Supreme Court will <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_calendars/MonthlyArgumentCalApril2025.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hear a case</a> brought by a group of parents claiming what Clinton argued years ago: Parents should be able to decide whether or not their children read LGBTQ storybooks at school.
Oral arguments will be heard for the parental rights case Mahmoud v. Taylor, which <a href="https://becketfund.org/media/religious-parents-ask-supreme-court-to-restore-opt-outs-for-pride-storybooks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">originated</a> when the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced LGBTQ storybooks to the elementary school curriculum and revoked its existing parental notice and opt-out policies. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian parents challenged the school district’s ban on elementary school opt-outs on the grounds that the policy burdened their constitutional right to free exercise of religion.
The diverse coalition of parents isn’t asking the school district to remove the LGBTQ storybooks from classrooms. They simply want the option to remove their children from the classroom when content is taught that conflicts with their religious beliefs. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and that vocation doesn’t stop when kids begin to attend school.
The board of education added storybooks that introduce gender ideology and sexuality to children as young as three or four years old. These storybooks are transparently part of an activist push to introduce children to same-sex relationships, transgender ideology, and LGBTQ vocabulary at a startlingly young age.
“Born Ready” features a female main character who repeatedly claims, “Inside, I’m a boy,” and whose parents immediately start treating her like a boy. “Not everything needs to make sense. This is about love,” Penelope’s mom tells her confused older brother. The book’s author, Jodie Patterson, serves on the board of the Human Rights Campaign, a radical LGBTQ advocacy group.
Another book in the Montgomery County curriculum, <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">titled</a> “My Rainbow,” is about a transgender-identifying boy’s desire to have long hair to fit in with “cisgender girls.” Trinity Neal, a transgender-identifying boy, and his mother, DeShanna, a nonbinary activist, wrote the story based on their experiences. DeShanna <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">advocated</a> for Medicaid coverage of Trinity’s puberty blockers, resulting in the first Medicaid coverage of transgender medical procedures in their home state of Delaware. Subsequently, Trinity <a href="https://history.delaware.gov/lgbtq/my-rainbow-and-trinity-neals-rainbow-wig/">became</a> the first minor in the state to change his birth certificate’s gender marker from male to female.
“Jacob’s Room to Choose,” about a cross-dressing boy whose school accommodates him by abolishing gendered bathrooms, was <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">published</a> through the American Psychological Association’s children’s book imprint. APA has prominently <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2024/02/policy-supporting-transgender-nonbinary#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAPA%20also%20affirms%20the%20essential,appropriate%20youth%20self%2Dadvocacy.%E2%80%9D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supported</a> transgender medical procedures for minors and advocated for so-called “gender-affirming care.”
The other books at the heart of Mahmoud v. Taylor are similarly written at an elementary school reading level but focus on complex adult topics of sexuality and gender identity. “Love, Violet” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">focuses</a> on a same-sex relationship between elementary school classmates. “Pride Puppy” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">instructs</a> readers to identify leather, underwear, a lip ring, an intersex flag, and a drag king in its illustrations.
“What Are Your Words?” <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">encourages</a> kids to change their pronouns, promoting confusing pairs like “ey/em,” “ze/zir,” and “xe/xir,” and using they/them pronouns to refer to individuals in the story. And “Intersection Allies,” another book <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/wu2be63z1cfa0jg6fq3je/APiCjohPQCCnkdX6jXcrOIE/Book%20Covers%20%2B%20Pages/Storybooks%20(Full%20text)?dl=0&amp;e=3&amp;rlkey=te8vom170eoxvb57ivge6ecue&amp;subfolder_nav_tracking=1">featured</a> in the case, includes a foreword by critical race theorist and activist Kimberle Crenshaw.
These storybooks are examples of radical propaganda written by progressive activists to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation. Kids may not know better than to believe what they’re taught, but American adults aren’t so convinced by these woke storybooks. Only 3% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that instruction on human sexuality and gender identity is appropriate for pre-K or kindergarten-aged children. And 77% of Americans <a href="https://becketnewsite.s3.amazonaws.com/20250115160612/Religious-Freedom-Index-2024-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe</a> that parents should be able to opt their children out of gender and sexuality instruction.
Just a few years ago, I pulled my children out of Fairfax County Schools because of the progressive garbage they were being exposed to in their classrooms on a daily basis. My family is not alone. There is a large movement of parents who have made the same decision we have, but not every family is in a position to do so. Parents should undoubtedly have the right to opt their children out of reading these radical activist storybooks: Children are not wards of the state.
When public schools add storybooks that teach gender ideology as truth, the state has violated the right of parents to raise their children in their religious tradition, along with teaching them the corresponding religious beliefs about gender, human sexuality, and the meaning of marriage.
The government has no business mandating that elementary students learn radical gender ideology. Fortunately, parents will do whatever it takes to protect their children and exercise their parental rights — even if it means taking the case to the Supreme Court.
* * *
Terry Schilling is a parental rights advocate and president of the American Principles Project.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mixed race teacher reading to class

Will SCOTUS Back Parents When It Comes To LGBTQ Storybooks?

Books

Children

Gender

gender ideology

LGBTQ

Opinion

Parental Rights in Education

Parenting

Public Schools

Schools

SCOTUS

Supreme Court

Baltimore&#8217;s public school district is going on a hiring spree while student enrollment plummets and test scores remain in the basement.
Baltimore City Public Schools inflated its number of employees by nearly 19% over the six years between 2018 and last year, according to Maryland State Department of Education data <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/employee-hiring-surges-in-baltimore-schools-as-student-enrollment-plummets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analyzed</a> by Fox 45&#8217;s Project Baltimore, an investigative initiative on the city&#8217;s floundering schools.
The school district hired 1,714 more staffers while the number of students plummeted by 4,781 or 6%, the data show.
It wasn&#8217;t mostly teachers the district hired, either.
Over those six years, the district hired 992 more teachers, about a 15% increase, but it also hired 721 non-teaching staff such as administrators, a 28% increase, the analysis found.
Last school year, the Baltimore City school district had 10,874 employees for 75,811 students, about 6.9 students per staffer.
&#8220;This pattern reveals that the government school system has become more of a jobs program for adults than an education initiative for kids,&#8221; school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis told The Daily Wire.
DeAngelis noted that 40% of Baltimore high schools had zero students <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/at-13-baltimore-city-high-schools-zero-students-tested-proficient-on-2023-state-math-exam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">score</a> proficient on the 2023 state math exam.
Meanwhile, Baltimore&#8217;s public school superintendent <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/baltimore-city-schools-ceo-total-compensation-hits-479000-sonja-santelises-jackie-wlliams-josh-civin-christopher-doherty-lynette-washington-naep" target="_blank" rel="noopener">makes</a> $479,672 a year, more than the president of the United States, DeAngelis pointed out.
&#8220;These failure factories don&#8217;t give a damn about the kids,&#8221; DeAngelis said. &#8220;These overpaid administrators are leeches that extract funding away from the classroom and the kids they&#8217;re supposed to serve. Baltimore needs real accountability from the bottom-up with school choice. Families must be able to vote with their feet to schools that work best for their kids. Only then will the school system cater to the needs of children and their families as opposed to the other way around.&#8221;
School choice critics often complain that failing inner city public schools are under-funded and simply need more resources to help low-income children thrive academically.
However, Baltimore spends far more per pupil than other large city school districts whose students perform better.
Baltimore City spends $18,272 tax dollars per student, according to last year&#8217;s census, Fox 45 <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/employee-hiring-surges-in-baltimore-schools-as-student-enrollment-plummets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Meanwhile, Albuquerque, New Mexico&#8217;s, school district spends $12,964 per pupil and the Austin, Texas, district spends $12,492. Both outperform Baltimore students in every category, such as 4th and 8th grade math and reading, on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, called the &#8220;Nation’s Report Card.&#8221;
&#8220;City Schools has made targeted investments in hiring qualified staff — from classroom teachers and counselors to literacy coaches and early childhood educators,&#8221; the district <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/project-baltimore/employee-hiring-surges-in-baltimore-schools-as-student-enrollment-plummets" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement. &#8220;We know that students thrive when they are supported by caring adults, and when schools are fully staffed and resourced. There is more work to do, but make no mistake — progress is happening, and our students deserve recognition for it.&#8221;

US-NEWS-BALTIMORE-SCHOOL-BUS-SAFETY-BZ

Baltimore Schools Hiring Like Crazy As Enrollment Plummets, Scores Stay Dismal

Baltimore

Money

When I enrolled at Indiana University I never thought I would see my peers graffiti “DIVEST NOW” across campus buildings and sidewalks. Now, to make matters worse, those same activists are threatening the university itself with ultimatums and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DCffDcmxmyn/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demands</a>.
“IU has until January 13 to respond, or we escalate.”
As a Jewish student at IU, I’ve witnessed firsthand how their actions have disrupted our campus. Their constant protests, graffiti, and inflammatory rhetoric haven’t just created tension, they’ve made Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome. Let’s be clear: the demands they’re making aren’t just unrealistic — they’re reckless. Their tantrums have hijacked campus discourse, turning what should be a place for learning into a battleground of intimidation.
So, what exactly are their demands? It’s complicated.
For starters, they’ve called for the resignation of our administrative leaders, including IU President Pam Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav, and Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs Carrie Docherty. Why? Because, according to IU Divest, these administrators failed to properly respond to the group’s accusations—accusations grounded in rhetoric that many students, including myself, see as <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-801408" target="_blank" rel="noopener">antisemitic</a>.
The coalition’s second demand, and the basis for their name, is that IU <a href="https://iuidivest.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immediately divest</a> from any Israeli-affiliated organization. They specifically target IU’s <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/01/iudc-protest-bloomington-faculty-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partnership</a> with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, an institution involved in research collaborations.
But here’s the reality: In 2016, the state of Indiana passed a <a href="https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/bills/house/1378/details" target="_blank" rel="noopener">law</a> prohibiting public funds from supporting institutions that discriminate against Israeli entities. If IU were to adopt the BDS movement’s goals, the university could lose over <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/01/iudc-protest-bloomington-faculty-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$250 million</a> in state funding. That includes money for faculty salaries, scholarships, research, and major campus projects.
Beyond the financial catastrophe, such a move would isolate IU from world-class Israeli institutions in medicine, technology, and academia. It would destroy opportunities for collaboration and innovation. Instead of fostering global dialogue, it would send a clear message that certain students and scholars aren’t welcome. IU would become less attractive to anyone who values academic freedom and global engagement.
And for what? Just to placate the tantrums of homegrown <a href="https://www.heraldtimesonline.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/12/08/column-indiana-university-antisemitic-pro-hamas-graffiti-must-stop/76771278007/">terror</a> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Tj4RwOpFg/?hl=en&amp;img_index=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporters</a> who seem more interested in performative outrage than constructive dialogue?
Then there’s IU Divest’s version of “activism.”
Since Hamas’s murder of 1,200 people on October 7, 2023, and the continued torture of Israeli hostages deep in the dungeons of Gaza, IU Divest continues to threaten the entire Indiana University and Bloomington community with their incessant calls for “resistance” and flagrant intimidation of Jewish students.
For example, two days after their “deadline,” the word &#8216;DIVEST&#8217;, accompanied by Palestinian flags, was <a href="https://x.com/StopAntisemites/status/1879526605481033832">spray-painted</a> in the snow in Dunn Meadow — facing Chabad, a place for Jewish students to gather, a cornerstone of IU’s Jewish student life. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Jewish students at Indiana University were shocked to find &#39;DIVEST&#39; and Palestinian flags painted in the snow outside the campus Chabad—a disturbing act of targeted harassment. 
We urge <a href="https://twitter.com/IndianaUniv?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@IndianaUniv</a> to take this incident seriously and conduct a thorough investigation… <a href="https://t.co/NTCOCgSNa2">pic.twitter.com/NTCOCgSNa2</a>
&mdash; StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) <a href="https://twitter.com/StopAntisemites/status/1879526605481033832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Months earlier, the statue of <a href="https://www.idsnews.com/article/2024/10/iu-statue-vandalism-herman-b-wells-iupd-search-warrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Herman B Wells</a>, a beloved IU figure, was defaced with red paint and a Palestinian flag. Around the same time, a fake bomb was left outside the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering causing panic and fear across the campus community.
Right now, Israel is being pressured to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners — many convicted of violent crimes — in exchange for just a few hostages. The irony of IU Divest’s self-righteous language is hard to ignore.
So, if it’s public knowledge that IU can’t legally adopt BDS without devastating consequences, why is the coalition still pushing this?
With all of this in mind, it seems reasonable to wonder if these student activists are merely ignorant ideologues or if this is all just political theater disguising a bigger urge to take out their personal inadequacies on IU’s proud, local Jewish minority.
The group is either ignorant or deliberately trying to intimidate Jewish students at IU. Hopefully, it’s now clear what “divest now” really means for IU and why supporting such a misguided movement is harmful.
This is exactly why Indiana’s state law includes the IHRA definition of antisemitism—because it recognizes the link between movements like BDS and real-world harassment. It’s comforting to see IU’s administration standing firm, but as students, we also have a responsibility to call this out. No student should be silenced. No university should be threatened into breaking the law. And no campaign should be allowed to hide its hostility behind slogans and spray paint.
* * *
Rachel Applefield is a senior at Indiana University studying Law and Public Policy with a minor in Social Welfare Advocacy and a 2024-2025 CAMERA on Campus Fellow.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Campus scene University of Indiana Bloomington

Antisemitic ‘Activists’ Have Turned My Campus Into A Battleground Of Intimidation

Anti-Semitism

College

Indiana University

Israel

Jewish

Pro-Hamas

Protests

Students

School choice is almost a reality in Texas after the state House of Representatives voted Thursday morning to approve the $1 billion voucher program.
In a process that dragged on overnight and into the early morning hours, the state House voted 85-63 to move the school choice bill along, with only two Republicans voting no, all but securing its passage. While the legislation still has to clear some legislative hurdles before it is sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott&#8217;s desk, Republicans, including President Donald Trump, are already celebrating the school choice victory.
&#8220;Congratulations to my friends, Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Speaker Dustin Burrows, along with Texas Legislators, for finally passing SCHOOL CHOICE, which I strongly endorsed – this is a gigantic Victory for students and parents in the Great State of Texas!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114353467767721095" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on Truth Social. &#8220;We will very soon be sending Education BACK TO ALL THE STATES, where it belongs. It is our goal to bring Education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!&#8221;
The school choice package, referred to as the Education Savings Account (ESA) program, would set aside $10,000 per year for most Texas students who attend an accredited private school, the Austin American-Statesman <a href="https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2025/02/06/school-voucher-texas-senate-bill-sb-2-choice-public-private-homeschool-impact-students-parents/78283012007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Students with disabilities attending an accredited private school would receive $11,500 per year, while homeschooling families would receive $2,000 per year for each child to use on qualifying educational expenses. Texas lawmakers included a requirement in the package that recipients of the ESA program be American citizens or people lawfully residing in the United States.
Gov. Abbott has vowed to sign the bill when it comes to his desk.
&#8220;For the first time in Texas history, our state has passed a universal school choice bill. This is an extraordinary victory!&#8221; Abbott <a href="https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1912767715460403481" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted</a> on X Thursday morning.
&#8220;From rural communities to big cities, school choice will open doors in every region of our state,&#8221; Abbott <a href="https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1912710323112403220" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> in another post. &#8220;Every child in Texas deserves the education path that works best for them.&#8221;
The massive voucher program would be capped at $1 billion in its first year, but after that, it could grow up to $4.5 billion per year by 2030, according to The New York Times. The money for the ESA program will come from a different pot than the money used by the state to fund public schools, according to Abbott. The state House also voted on Wednesday to boost public school funding to $8 billion.
Lt. Gov. Patrick estimates that around 90,000 Texas students will participate in the ESA program. However, if demand for the vouchers exceeds the state&#8217;s funding for the program, children from low-income families and those with disabilities will be prioritized, The Dallas Morning News <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2025/04/17/school-choice-plan-clears-historic-hurdle-with-texas-house-approval/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
The Texas school choice bill was mostly supported by conservatives and opposed by Democrats and teachers unions, who fear that the program will harm public education and divert money away from public schools, which will still be responsible for educating most of Texas&#8217;s students. Opponents of the bill also argue that the ESA program will mostly benefit parents who already send their children to private schools.
School choice advocates are celebrating major wins across the country, including in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Most recently, Tennessee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-passes-school-choice-milestone-in-advancing-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> a school choice program after a years-long fight.

Greg Abbott

Texas On The Verge Of School Choice Plan With Support From Trump

School Choice

Texas

As the Department of Education yanks $175 million of federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title IX by allowing males into women’s sports, Secretary Linda McMahon should also consider cracking down on other, more common procedural violations of Title IX that have been routinely committed by colleges for over a decade: that is, violations against due process for students and faculty accused of sexual misconduct.
This status quo was created by the Obama Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which gutted protections for the accused in the name of “victims’ rights,” under penalty of losing federal funding. The letter mandated that colleges use the “preponderance of evidence” standard — which only demands that the guilty be deemed over 50% likely to have committed misconduct — as opposed to the stronger “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” standard employed in criminal trials in actual courts. It also allowed alleged victims to appeal the result of a disciplinary hearing — a form of double jeopardy otherwise barred by the legal system. Moreover, it discouraged cross-examination of victims, claiming this would “retraumatize” them, and enabled a single-investigator model, in which the person investigating the sexual misconduct claim would also adjudicate the sexual misconduct claim and decide as to whether or not the accused was guilty — giving the investigator the near absolute power to be “prosecutor, judge, and jury” at once, as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/breaking-new-title-ix-regulations-undermine-campus-free-speech-and-due-process-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> it.
Having received Obama’s memo, colleges went above and beyond — the Constitution, that is: even after President Trump took office for the first time and then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama-era “Dear Colleague” letter in 2017, colleges kept their kangaroo courts — and began to be taken to court themselves. In two notable cases, federal courts determined that accused students at the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/26/us-appeals-court-finds-student-accused-sexual-assault-was-denied-due-process" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cincinnati</a> and the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/court-holds-university-michigan-administrators-personally-liable-violating-students-due" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Michigan</a> had their constitutional rights to due process violated. Per a 2019 <a href="https://nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Harris-Johnson-Campus-Courts-in-Court-22-nyujlpp-49.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> by Samantha Harris and K.C. Johnson, over 500 lawsuits were filed by accused students in the post-2011 period; 340 lawsuits went to federal court; colleges lost over 90 federal decisions; and colleges chose to settle over 70 lawsuits out of court before a decision could be made. This was around the peak of #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen: in that cultural moment, anyone accused of sexual misconduct was essentially presumed guilty until proven innocent, a horrible inversion of the American rule of law.
Eventually, in 2020, DeVos established a rule ensuring Title IX proceedings would respect due process and treat both accuser and accused fairly. Because DeVos used the rulemaking process, rather than ruling by “Dear Colleague” fiat as her predecessor did, her decision was harder to reverse by the Biden administration. As a result, the Biden rule came toward the end of his administration in 2024, and, thanks to the administration’s overreaching attempt to rewrite Title IX to include “gender identity,” was immediately caught up in federal injunctions and barely implemented by the time Trump took office a second time and officially brought back the DeVos rule. That means that despite the change in administrations and attempted changes to Title IX by Biden, most colleges have been subject to the DeVos rule for most of the past five years.
Nevertheless, <a href="https://x.com/kcjohnson9/status/1893051067799060764" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> over the past several years have continued to be filed by accused students and faculty alleging that their colleges treated them unfairly in Title IX proceedings. Just this month, the Fourth Circuit <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/expelled-unc-student-can-pursue-reinstatement-not-money-in-federal-suit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> in favor of an accused student at the University of North Carolina, noting that due process, live hearings, and cross-examination are crucial in Title IX proceedings. The persistence of lawsuits from the accused suggests that colleges are still not treating the accused fairly, and, as a result, are not only potentially disciplining, expelling, and firing perfectly innocent people — mostly men — they are also undermining the validity of all allegations, which makes it more difficult for real victims — mostly women — to be taken seriously.
College bureaucrats act this way in part because they are concerned with their own interests first: the #MeToo zeitgeist of yesterday still has them convinced that the fallout from blatantly unconstitutional proceedings will be less damaging to them than the possibility of activists calling them “rape apologists” for treating accused students and faculty with fairness. The Department of Education can change this calculus by stripping federal funds from every institution violating the rights of the accused. Only harsh federal action and the potential for penalties where it hurts will show colleges that they will suffer more for presuming guilt and holding unfair proceedings than they will for presuming innocence and treating both parties fairly, as the American rule of law demands.
On a more human note, colleges are often the places where young men and young women form their opinions of the world and of each other. Especially at a time when relations between the sexes are <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2024/03/13/why-the-growing-gulf-between-young-men-and-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">souring</a>, it is crucial that colleges be expected to follow the law if they are to continue to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.
* * *
Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst and engagement coordinator at Independent Women.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Views Of Yale University As Ivy League Pay Soars

‘Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury’: Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

'Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury': Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

American Universities

Betsy DeVos

Department of Education

Due Process

Obama Administration

Title IX

University of Michigan

University of Pennsylvania

According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration is pushing the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard University’s tax-exempt status.
The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/04/16/trump-harvard-tax-exempt-irs/">reported</a> that three sources informed the outlet that President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration had asked the IRS to make the move, although there is no confirmation that it has done so. WaPo also reported that its sources claimed Andrew De Mello, the IRS’s acting chief counsel, was asked by the Treasury Department to take the action. Sources also claimed this is part of a feud with Ivy League schools that the Trump administration views as &#8220;woke.&#8221;
“I think they’re going to go after a whole bunch of them,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) said. “I’m not sure why we need to be funding people who aggressively refuse to give up a variety of values and structures that most Americans don’t agree with.”
On Tuesday. President Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114342374504628520">posted</a> on Truth Social, “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting ‘Sickness?’ Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields stated: &#8220;Any forthcoming actions by the IRS will be conducted independently of the president, and investigations into any institution’s violations of its tax status were initiated prior to the president’s TRUTH.”
In January 2024, Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-MO), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/10/jason-smith-harvard-mit-penn-might-not-deserve-tax-exemption-00134815" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suggested</a> that the responses of Harvard, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT to the antisemitism on their campuses might justify revoking their tax-exempt status. The college’s actions “raise several questions, including whether your institutions are fulfilling their educational purposes as required to receive 501c3 tax-exempt status &#8230;”
On Monday, the Trump administration’s Department of Education announced it would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value to Harvard University after the school said it would not comply with the Trump administration’s demand that the university <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Response-2025-04-14.pdf">claimed</a> would “invade university freedoms.”
Last Friday, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services sent a <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf">letter</a> to Harvard in which they stated, “By August 2025, the University must adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin …” adding that the same attitude must prevail in admissions policies. The correspondence also declared that by the same date, the university must “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism.”
The university “shall commission an external party … to audit the student body, faculty and leadership for viewpoint diversity” by August 2025, the letter continued, in order to ensure that the leftist perspective that dominates the university should be contrasted with other viewpoints.
Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University, responded with a <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/">statement</a> in which he said, “We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” contending, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” and claiming the administration’s demands violated “Harvard’s First Amendment rights … threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

Trump Admin Wants IRS To Quash Harvard’s Tax-Exempt Status: Report

Donald Trump

Harvard

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Politics

Taxes

Washington Post

Wokeness

On Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump blasted Harvard University for hiring “Leftist dopes” and “birdbrains” to teach at the institution while declaring they teach “Hate and Stupidity.”
<a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114347313852363347">Writing</a> on Truth Social, Trump began by asserting, “Everyone knows that Harvard has ‘lost its way.’” He then noted that the university had hired two former hard-left mayors of New York and Chicago, Bill de Blasio and Lori Lightfoot, to teach about government, writing, “They hired, from New York (Bill D) and Chicago (Lori L), at ridiculously high salaries/fees, two of the WORST and MOST INCOMPETENT mayors in the history of our Country, to &#8216;teach&#8217; municipal management and government. These two Radical Left fools left behind two cities that will take years to recover from their incompetence and evil.&#8221;
“Harvard has been hiring almost all woke, Radical Left, idiots and ‘birdbrains’ who are only capable of teaching FAILURE to students and so-called ‘future leaders,’” he continued, then turned to former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who <a href="https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/harvard-president-claudine-gay-plagiarism-probe/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> after she had been harshly criticized for insisting that calls for genocide against Jews might not have violated Harvard’s codes of conduct because it depended on the “context” and had also been accused of plagiarism. Trump wrote:
<blockquote>
Look just to the recent past at their plagiarizing President, who so greatly embarrassed Harvard before the United States Congress. When it got so bad that they just couldn’t take it anymore, they moved this grossly inept woman into another position, teaching, rather than firing her ON THE SPOT. Since then much else has been found out about her, but she remains in place.
</blockquote>
“Many others, like these Leftist dopes, are teaching at Harvard, and because of that, Harvard can no longer be considered even a decent place of learning, and should not be considered on any list of the World’s Great Universities or Colleges,” he stated. “Harvard is a JOKE, teaches Hate and Stupidity, and should no longer receive Federal Funds. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
On Monday, the Trump administration’s Department of Education announced it would freeze $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60 million in multi-year contract value to Harvard University after the university said it would not comply with the Trump administration’s demand that the university <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Harvard-Response-2025-04-14.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> would “invade university freedoms.”
Last Friday, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services sent a <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to Harvard in which they stated, “By August 2025, the University must adopt and implement merit-based hiring policies, and cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin &#8230;” adding that the same attitude must prevail in admissions policies. The correspondence also declared that by the same date, the university must “prevent admitting students hostile to the American values and institutions inscribed in the American Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including students supportive of terrorism and anti-Semitism.”
The university “shall commission an external party &#8230; to audit the student body, faculty and leadership for viewpoint diversity” by August 2025, the letter continued, in order to ensure that the leftist perspective that dominates the university should be contrasted with other viewpoints.
Alan Garber, the president of Harvard University, responded with a <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/">statement</a> in which he said, “We have informed the administration through our legal counsel that we will not accept their proposed agreement,” contending, “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights” and claiming the administration’s demands violated “Harvard’s First Amendment rights &#8230; threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”

US-POLITICS-TRUMP-AUTO-TARIFFS

Trump Blasts Harvard, Says They Hire ‘Leftist Dopes,’ ‘Birdbrains’

antisemitism

Executive

Harvard Univeristy

When Oregon&#8217;s Democrat governor announced her state would defy President Donald Trump&#8217;s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion, she said she was doing it for a good reason: the kids.
“Since the start of the new federal administration, I promised Oregonians that I would not back down from a fight when it comes to safeguarding Oregon values,&#8221; Tina Kotek <a href="https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/GOV/Posts/Post/governor-kotek-issues-statement-in-response-to-trump-administration’s-threat-to-take-away-funds-from-oregon-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Thursday. &#8220;Making sure every child has the opportunity to meet their future promise with a strong public education is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of government and one of my top priorities as Governor.&#8221;
That&#8217;s ironic. Because, under Kotek&#8217;s leadership, Oregon&#8217;s students are struggling to get by.
Nearly half of Oregon fourth graders scored below &#8220;basic&#8221; levels in reading, meaning they <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/reading-scores-fall-to-new-low-on-naep-fueled-by-declines-for-struggling-students/2025/01#:~:text=Studies%20have%20shown%20that%20scoring,purpose%20of%20an%20informational%20text." target="_blank" rel="noopener">lack</a> important reading comprehension skills like being able to determine the main idea of a text. In math, about a third of fourth graders scored below basic, <a href="https://www.nagb.gov/news-and-events/news-releases/2025/nations-report-card-decline-in-reading-progress-in-math.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meaning</a> they likely struggle with simple concepts like odd numbers.
Eighth graders&#8217; scores were just as concerning, with nearly half (45%) <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219OR8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scoring</a> below basic in math, and over a third (35%) <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220OR8.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scoring</a> below basic in reading.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a bold strategy, Cotton,&#8221; school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Let&#8217;s see if it works out for them.&#8221;
&#8220;Oregon should lose all federal funding if they want to indoctrinate kids with DEI Marxism. Tax dollars shouldn&#8217;t prop up divisive ideologies that pit students against each other and their country,&#8221; DeAngelis told The Daily Wire.
That&#8217;s exactly what the Trump administration says it will do if Oregon doesn&#8217;t comply with its DEI ban. The Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/reminder-of-legal-obligations-undertaken-exchange-receiving-federal-financial-assistance-and-request-certification-under-title-vi-and-sffa-v-harvard-april-3">informed</a> states earlier this month that &#8220;The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences,&#8221; including &#8220;eliminating federal funding.&#8221;
But despite that threat, Oregon Democrats are, in DeAngelis&#8217;s words, &#8220;doubling down on failure.&#8221; To him, it&#8217;s because they &#8220;see the school system as a tool to control the minds of other people&#8217;s children as opposed to an education initiative.&#8221;
&#8220;Oregon Democrats are all-in on indoctrinating kids with their socialist worldview,&#8221; DeAngelis said. &#8220;Telling kids that they&#8217;re going to be failures based on their immutable characteristics holds them down.&#8221;
&#8220;This latest stunt proves their anti-parent agenda is even more about control than money,&#8221; he added. &#8220;These control freaks need to do their job, stay in their lane, and stick to the basics so kids can get an education.&#8221;
The governor&#8217;s office did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress — called &#8220;the Nation&#8217;s Report Card&#8221; — Oregon fourth graders <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024219OR4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ranked</a> second-worst in the country in math, tying with five other states, and third-worst in <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220OR4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reading</a>, along with 11 other states.
But as scores plummeted over the last decade, Oregon schools did not drill down on phonics or multiplication tables. Instead, they focused on flashy, progressive wish-list items.
After the coronavirus pandemic, Portland-area parents <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/parents-apoplectic-after-oregon-school-board-goes-virtual-amid-gender-ideology-concerns" target="_blank" rel="noopener">erupted</a> at school board meetings over schools&#8217; embrace of gender ideology, including the availability of alleged “pornographic” books in school libraries, and subpar academic performance.
In Portland, the teachers&#8217; union decided in 2023 that they would take gender identity and race into account before disciplining students, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-teachers-will-take-gender-identity-race-into-account-before-disciplining" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the union&#8217;s collective bargaining agreement. After the pandemic, Portland teachers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/portland-teachers-will-take-gender-identity-race-into-account-before-disciplining" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they were seeing “more students in crisis” with mental health issues, which can lead to fights.
In 2022, Oregon <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/standards/science/Documents/K-12%20%20Oregon%20Science%20Standards%20with%20Guidance.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">updated</a> its science standards to teach that humans cause climate change.
Defending Education, a group that fights indoctrination in public schools, said Oregon should be focused on improving its dismal test scores.
&#8220;Oregon&#8217;s education leaders should be hanging their heads in shame,&#8221; Sarah Parshall Perry, the group&#8217;s vice president, told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Instead, they&#8217;ve doubled down on divisive and racially discriminatory DEI programs that have done nothing to boost educational outcomes,&#8221; she said. &#8220;That&#8217;s not only a violation of federal law, it&#8217;s foolhardy and misguided. And the students of Oregon deserve better. They deserve an education focused on the academic fundamentals the state has so clearly failed to deliver.”
Jeanette Schade, a former Oregon teacher who ran for school board in the Portland area in 2021, blamed the state&#8217;s failing school system on a laundry list of problems, including &#8220;dumbed-down&#8221; teacher education programs.
&#8220;Teachers are being indoctrinated in their teacher education programs,&#8221; Schade told The Daily Wire, saying those teachers go on to expose children to DEI, Critical Race Theory, and sex education that includes gender ideology.
Schade also noted that Oregon scrapped its graduation requirements during the pandemic and never went back.
In 2021, Oregon <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/oregon-extends-pandemic-pause-on-reading-writing-math-proficiency-high-school-graduation-requirement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made</a> the controversial move to stop requiring high schoolers to pass an &#8220;essential skills&#8221; standardized test <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/ode/educator-resources/essentialskills/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showing</a> basic proficiency in reading, writing, and math in order to receive their diploma.
Advocates for pausing the graduation requirement argued that the test put minority students at a disadvantage. Now, critics simply point to the sinking test scores.
<div dir="auto">
&#8220;DEI is the exact opposite of what the words mean,&#8221; Schade said. &#8220;Diversity means uniformity. Equity means not equal or helpful. And inclusive means exclude.&#8221;
</div>

Oregon Gubernatorial Candidate Tina Kotek Cast Her Ballot In Portland

As Oregon Defies Trump On DEI In Schools, Its Students Are Falling Through The Cracks

Oregon Is Doubling Down On DEI In The Classroom. It Has Some Of The Country's Worst Schools.

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

LGBT

Oregon

The executive branch is now making the claim that Harvard University should have its funding removed because it is in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
Harvard declared it was going to resist the Trump administration&#8217;s <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/research-funding/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/2025/04/Letter-Sent-to-Harvard-2025-04-11.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demands</a> to change its governance structure over campus anti-Semitism concerns. And so the government responded by announcing a $2.26 billion freeze of Harvard&#8217;s multiyear grants and contracts.
Harvard President Alan Garber put out <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a statement</a> complaining that the federal government was wrong for involving itself in this way. How dare the federal government actually attach strings to the things it has always attached its strings to?
The Trump administration asked for nine actions. Most of the demands concerned how the university operates. The government was asking for changes like a comprehensive mask bans, changes to governance and leadership, along with reforms to admissions and DEI programs.
These programs are in violation of the Civil Rights Act. There is no question that DEI would be predicated on the false notion that inequality of outcome by group must be due to discrimination and therefore must be rectified by reverse discrimination. That is in violation of the Civil Rights Act and certainly in violation of Supreme Court standards with regard to affirmative action.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2179-member-exclusive?elementPosition=1&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a> </h3>
As far as a comprehensive mask ban, the idea is you don&#8217;t want people who have shown up to campus on student visas participating in anti-American activity that would otherwise get them deported.
And the university is facilitating all of that. 
The government is also demanding necessary changes to address bias, improve viewpoint diversity and end ideological capture, fueling anti-Semitic harassment, according to the task force&#8217;s letter.
This will likely all get played out in the courts.
But the idea that Harvard University is somehow owed federal money is absurd on its face. There is no reason the Trump administration should not be able to attach strings to money that it is sending to a university with a $53 billion endowment.
You know what’s an easy way for Harvard to continue its policy of independence from the federal government? To be independent of the federal government.
Don&#8217;t get in bed with the government if you don&#8217;t want to be controlled. That tends to be a pretty good way of approaching life.
On Friday, the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors sued the Trump administration, saying the government’s actions “overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech.”
That’s not correct; they&#8217;re simply saying if you engage in anti-Semitism, that it&#8217;s in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
When Lawrence Summers was the president of Harvard University, they became angry with him because he made the mere suggestion that perhaps the lack of women in scientific institutions might be due to the fact that women are less interested in scientific pursuits overall, as opposed to men. Not to mention that the ends of the bell curve with regard to scientific performance on tests tend to be heavily male. He was soon ousted from his position.
So don&#8217;t give me your free speech concerns when you&#8217;ve been cracking down on free speech yourself for a long time. If you want to say free speech doesn&#8217;t apply at Harvard because it’s a private university, then you have to be a private university. You can&#8217;t have it both ways. You can&#8217;t say, “Free speech applies to us; we are a free speech institution. And also, we want your taxpayer money.”
That&#8217;s not the way it should work.
The idea that Harvard did not violate the Civil Rights Act is ridiculous. Does that mean that every demand that the Trump administration is making is going to get upheld in court? Some of the demands will most likely be held to be extraneous.
But Harvard does not have any moral grounds to stand on when they insist that everyone else pay the bills so they can continue pushing whatever nonsense it is they are pushing.

Harvard University Pushes Back Against Trump Administration Demands

Trump Smashes Harvard

Civil Rights

President Trump

Former President Barack Obama, whose own administration excluded colleges that refused federal funds from its College Scorecard, railed against the Trump administration, calling it “ham-handed” for penalizing Harvard University for its lackadaisical response to antisemitism and reluctance to countenance conservative viewpoints.
In 2015, the Obama administration issued its “College Scorecard,” which offered information about college and universities&#8217; graduation rates and the average salary of graduates. But schools such as Hillsdale College, Grove City College and Christendom College, none of which accepted federal funding and thus were not beholden to federal guidelines, were <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2015/09/18/obama-administration-slams-conservative-school-as-not-a-real-college/%E2%80%99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">excluded</a> from the list.
Obama&#8217;s own administration, as well as the Biden administration, was rife with anti-Israel sentiment and actions, as documented <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-leaks-info-about-israel-the-obama-biden-administration-was-infamous-for-that" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Last Friday, the Trump administration told Harvard it had to clean up its act by August 2025 by more aggressively confronting antisemitism and its own leftist orthodoxy. Harvard University President Alan Garber responded in a <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/president/news/2025/the-promise-of-american-higher-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> that the administration’s demands violated “Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI. And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge.”
On Monday, the Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/joint-task-force-combat-anti-semitism-statement-regarding-harvard-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">informed</a> Harvard, “The disruption of learning that has plagued campuses in recent years is unacceptable. The harassment of Jewish students is intolerable. It is time for elite universities to take the problem seriously and commit to meaningful change if they wish to continue receiving taxpayer support. The Joint Task Force to combat anti-Semitism is announcing a freeze on $2.2 billion in multi-year grants and $60M in multi-year contract value to Harvard University.”
“Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect,” Obama huffed. “Let’s hope other institutions follow suit.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions – rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking concrete steps to make sure all students at Harvard can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and… <a href="https://t.co/gAu9UUqgjF">https://t.co/gAu9UUqgjF</a>
&mdash; Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1911980834048954551?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard and the University of North Carolina in a suit accusing Harvard’s admissions process of discriminating against Asian-American applicants. The decision “concluded that the race-based admissions policies of both universities violate the Equal Protection Clause because their admissions process unlawfully incorporates an applicant’s race throughout and for many applicants, ‘race is a determinative’ factor,” Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation <a href="https://www.heritage.org/courts/commentary/supreme-court-finally-ends-racist-discrimination-college-admissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted.</a> “The universities also failed to show a connection between the discriminatory means they employ in admissions and their stated goal of diversity.”

Former President Barack Obama Campaigns For Democrats In Milwaukee

Obama Rails Against Trump Administration For Punishing Harvard University

Barack Obama

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