Grand Canyon University (GCU) is appealing the $37.7 million fine issued by the Department of Education (ED) for allegedly advertising false degree costs.
GCU maintains ED targeted their institution over ideological differences, not the public allegations of misrepresented doctoral program costs. GCU is a private Christian university.
In a press release on Thursday, GCU President Brian Mueller said that thousands of students, parents, employees, alumni, and community stakeholders felt ED was behaving tyrannically and had been weaponized against them.
“American people are losing confidence in the federal government to be fair and objective in their operations and there are clearly no checks and balances to prevent this type of behavior from the Department of Education, which is out of control and continues to broaden its authority and selective enforcement powers,” said Mueller.
ED announced its fine against GCU on Halloween. The agency accused the institution of deceiving over 7,500 doctoral students since 2017 — 98 percent of students reviewed — into paying more than advertised. ED said that GCU’s advertised cost of $40,000 to $49,000 amounted to false claims that violated the Higher Education Act, federal regulations on substantial misrepresentations, and Title IV’s fiduciary standard.
ED said that 78 percent of GCU’s doctoral program graduates paid $10,000 to $12,000 more in tuition costs for continuation courses to complete their dissertation requirements. The agency declared that GCU’s various fine print disclosures given to students were “insufficient to cure the substantial misrepresentations regarding cost.”
In addition to the fine, ED issued five conditions for GCU to meet: give prospective or current doctoral students the average total tuition and fees paid by graduates and the maximum number of credits that a student can take that are eligible for Title IV funds, and engage a monitor to oversee compliance; issue quarterly reports to ED about investigations, actions, or other legal proceedings by its accrediting agency or any government agency, as well as pending litigation in which a plaintiff seeks class certification; send a notice to all currently enrolled doctoral students informing them how to use ED’s feedback center to submit a complaint to ED; and send a notice to all current employees who provide recruiting, admissions, and other services to doctoral students about how to use the Federal Student Aid Tips line to submit information about misconduct or violations.
As AZ Free News reported previously, the ED investigation began after GCU challenged ED’s rejection of GCU’s nonprofit status by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 2019. After several years of attempting to overcome ED’s denial, GCU sued in 2021. Following that, ED announced a coordinated effort with the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Veterans Affairs to investigate GCU for unfair or deceptive practices.
As part of GCU’s appeal, Mueller maintained that GCU doesn’t mislead or deceive its students. Mueller cited his institution’s favorable federal court rulings in Young v. GCU, in which two courts rejected claims of misrepresentation regarding the time or cost for doctoral program completion.
Mueller also cited a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from last November, which determined that 91 percent of colleges mislead or understate the net price of financial aid to prospective students.
Additionally, GCU noted that it has undertaken its own preliminary internal study of doctoral program costs at 100 other universities. The university claimed that only two percent of those universities disclose full costs, 51 percent failed to clearly or fully disclose anything about the need for additional courses to complete a dissertation, and 45 percent made statements that a doctoral degree could be earned in a set number of years despite the varying length of time needed to complete a dissertation.
Mueller said that there was little incentive for their university to deceive doctoral program students, since it was their smallest degree program containing less than five percent of students. He pointed out that GCU hasn’t raised its tuition in 15 years.
“If our goal was to generate more revenue, rather than allegedly deceive students we could simply increase tuition three to four percent a year for a few years — as most universities have done — and no one would bat an eye,” said Mueller. “We haven’t done that. In fact, we have frozen tuition on our ground campus for 15 straight years because our innovative approach to managing this university, which the Department objects to, has allowed us to do that for the benefit of our students.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
While Arizona Democrats continue to search for ways to bring down the state’s school choice opportunities, Republicans are working on solutions to increase salaries for teachers in K-12 public schools.
On Monday, Arizona Republican legislators held a press conference to announce a plan to raise teachers’ pay, calling it the “Teacher Pay Fund.” The goal of the lawmakers is to “deliver K-12 public school educators with an average of 7% pay raises all without increasing taxes.”
According to the press release from Arizona Senate Republicans, the plan involves an addition to the November 2024 ballot, where voters would decide on Prop 123’s future. If voters approved that question, that money would be “dedicated solely to teacher pay raises, beginning in the summer of 2025.”
Senate President Warren Petersen endorsed the plan, saying, “This initiative will allow Arizona to be more competitive in teacher salaries, boosting teacher pay in Arizona above the national average, and making a big increase to starting teacher pay. We believe we can continue this dedicated funding source long-term because the fund has already grown exponentially over the last eight years, even during tumultuous economic times.”
The Chair of the Senate’s Education Committee, Ken Bennett, added, “Republicans have led the charge in dedicating billions of new dollars to K-12 education, on top of Prop 123 funds and inflationary increases, but unfortunately not enough of those dollars are getting into our classrooms or to our teachers. Arizona teachers right now make about $56,700, on average. This proposal will increase teacher pay to an average of over $60,000. We can – and we should – do better. This is a responsible proposal that won’t create a new tax burden for our citizens.”
AZ Free News reached out to Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who said, “We absolutely have to increase teacher salaries. We lose 40% of our teachers in 4 years and then another 26% in years five to nine. So that’s a total of 63% of our teachers that we’re losing. We cannot replace teachers at that rate. Surrounding States all pay more and we lose good teachers. We can’t afford to keep doing that.”
One of the top advocates for teacher pay increases at the state legislature, freshman Representative Matthew Gress, attended the press conference and supported the plan. He posted, “Today, I’m proud to join with teachers, school board members, and my legislative colleagues to introduce a plan that sends 100% of NEW State Land Trust resources for K-12 education DIRECTLY to the classroom. If approved by voters, classroom teachers will get a $4,000 RAISE.”
Today, I’m proud to join with teachers, school board members, and my legislative colleagues to introduce a plan that sends 100% of NEW State Land Trust resources for K-12 education DIRECTLY to the classroom.
Gress took a political shot at some of the state’s education interest groups, adding, “It’s time to bypass school administration and the education unions to do what’s right for Arizona students. Every student deserves a high quality educational leader in the front of their classroom, EVERY DAY without exception. Common sense couldn’t be more clear.”
It’s time to bypass school administration and the education unions to do what’s right for Arizona students.
EVERY student deserves a high quality educational leader in the front of their classroom, EVERY DAY without exception.
It didn’t take long for some of those groups to react to the Republicans’ plan. The Arizona Education Association’s President, Marisol Garcia, warned that “the devil is in the details,” making the case for “education support professionals” to receive increases in pay along with the state’s teachers.
Save Our Schools Arizona called the proposal a “shell game,” accusing Republicans of using this scheme to cut funding to K-12 schools. The group argued that Arizona legislators should instead be committing “new dollars” for students and teachers and attacked the 2022 universal expansion of ESAs as part of the problem.
Read our statement on the proposed “Teacher Pay Fund,” which is a shell game: pic.twitter.com/bYRuOF0FkC
Earlier this year, Representative Gress, a Republican, sponsored HB 2800, which would have given Arizona teachers a pay increase. According to figures provided by House Republicans, the bill would have given state instructors the fourth highest ($50,554) starting salaries in the nation, compared to a current ranking of 27th ($40,554). The bill did not make it to Governor Katie Hobbs’ Office during the 2023 session.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
On Tuesday, House lawmakers convened to discuss the impact of universal school choice in the state.
The House Ad Hoc Study Committee on Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) Governance and Oversight heard public comments and expert testimony from Alan Maguire, a consultant with the Maguire Company; Patrick Moran, a Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) staffer; and John Ward, executive director of the ESA Program at the Arizona Department of Education (ADE).
Maguire said that ESA recipient growth has slowed as the school year has gone on, which he said was typical. He expressed the expectation that almost no matter what happens, the ESA Program’s implications for the state budget would be significant but manageable.
“I don’t think [the changes] we’re facing as a result of changes in the ESA recipients will be that challenging; challenging, but not scary challenging,” said Maguire.
Moran, the JLBC staffer, addressed the K-12 financing issues related to student movement between district and charter schools and the ESA Program. The Arizona Department of Education has $11.8 billion, but public schools receive funds from the Basic State Aid (BSA) Formula, which has $9.7 billion.
The BSA Formula factors funding based on average daily membership (ADM) student counts: enrollment of full-time/fractional students for the first 100 days, minus withdrawals, wherein students must meet the minimum requirements for total instructional hours/courses to be counted. The unweighted student count for the 2024 fiscal year was about 1.1 million.
Then, the ADM is weighted based on several grouped statutory factors: Group A weights adjust for school size, location (whether urban or rural), and type (K-8 or high school); Group B weights adjust for specific student populations, such as special education, English learners, or K-3 reading programs. With these group weightings, the 2024 fiscal year count reached about 1.56 million.
The BSA Formula components within the enacted budget established a base funding level of $7.8 billion, additional assistance at $1.04 billion, and transportation at $213 million. Property taxes fund nearly $2.6 billion of the public school formula, which the state partially offsets with a homeowner’s rebate (50 percent in the 2024 fiscal year with a cap of $600).
The enacted budget projected that the ESA Program would cost $625 million for 68,000 enrollees. However, actual enrollment is currently at about 70,000, and the ADE reported that awards have reached $665 million — $40 million over what was assumed in the budget. Moran said that this didn’t necessarily qualify as a shortfall for the ADE because they lack the data on where those new ESA students hailed from.
“We can’t determine the impact of ‘switchers’ in real time, because we don’t know of those 70,000 how many were in public school in FY 2024 and FY 2023,” said Moran. “We also need to know how much formula funding those students were generating in the district or charter school they were previously attending to calculate that net impact.”
Moran said that the average student award was lower from the ESA Program than for public district schools.
“Based on the data that ADE has shared with us, we think the average ESA [award] across all populations original and universal would be about $9,700 [per student], so it would be lower than the $12,200 [for charter schools] and lower than the $14,000 figure [for districts],” said Moran.
State Rep. Judy Schweibert (D-LD02) stated that Arizona ranked 48th in the nation for public school funding, based on federal data. House Speaker Ben Toma (R-LD22), the committee chairman, rebutted that the federal rank may not be entirely accurate, arguing each state’s funding formula for schools was unique and therefore not an apples to apples comparison.
Ward with the ADE offered management and administration updates concerning the ESA Program. Ward reported that the program has grown to nearly 70,200 students from over 13,400 students last September just prior to universalization. He projected that the ESA Program may reach anywhere from 90,000 to 100,000 students by the beginning of the next school year.
Ward projected that ESA awards may reach about $780 million by the end of the 2024 fiscal year. He dismissed concerns that the awards would bankrupt the state, reporting that even at that total the program would have a $57 million surplus in BSA.
Ward touched back on Moran’s assessment that public school student allocations were higher than ESA student allocations: $13,400 for public school students in the 2022 fiscal year versus $9,800 for ESA students in the 2024 fiscal year.
He reported that of the over 15,000 applications reviewed, several thousand were dismissed as incomplete. Additionally, almost 2,200 ESA accounts were suspended because of records indicating they were still enrolled in public school; their annual awards totaled over $21 million.
The ADE will be automating some of its processes going forward concerning purchase approvals and enrollment. ADE has partnered with ClassWallet to curate the catalogs of vendors on the marketplace and establish a rules engine, as well as to deploy directpay, reimbursement, and debit card auto approval through scanning technology and another rules engine.
Additionally, the ADE plans to improve data transparency by publishing a data dashboard. Types of data will include the number of ESA participants by eligibility type, grade level, gender, age, zip code, and county; number of students previously in a public school; number of applications coming in weekly and monthly; and average and median award amounts.
State Rep. Nancy Gutierrez (D-LD18) asked whether the surge in ESA Program popularity had to do with private school families. Moran said that 40 percent of ESA students came from public schools this fiscal year (2024), an increase from the last fiscal year (2023) prior to universalization.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A controversial post on social media from southern Arizona Democrats was deleted after attracting significant outrage from around the country.
Last week, the Pima County Democratic Party responded to a post on the platform “X,” calling for the end of school choice in Arizona.
The post that the Pima County Democrats chose to react to was from Greg Price, who, according to his bio, is involved with communications with the State Freedom Caucus Network. Price was alerting his more than 326,000 followers about the news out of the Illinois Legislature, where the state house there adjourned without extending the Invest in Kids program, which gives scholarship tax credits to almost 10,000 low-income children.
Pima County Democrats wrote, “Let’s make this a goal here in Arizona. Let’s kill school choice – send it to the grave.”
People were quick to respond to the post. Senate President Pro Tempore T.J. Shope stated, “Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling. Basically have the government tell families what to do with their kids cuz the government knows best. Nope. Not gonna happen as long as I represent Pima County!”
Let’s be clear about what this tweet means. School Choice in AZ really blossomed in the 1990s and times prior in AZ. @PimaDems want to end school choice options like Open Enrollment within a school district, charter schools, abolish private schools, eliminate home schooling.… https://t.co/LSjDM3YaVy
Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma weighed in, saying, “The Democrats’ desparate attacks on school choice do nothing but reveal their own desire to indoctrinate children with their radical leftist ideologies. They couldn’t stop charter schools or other school choice programs despite decades of trying. School choice is here to stay.”
Even a journalist from the Arizona Republic, Laurie Roberts, added her thoughts about the post. Roberts said, “Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature.”
Pima County Democrats want to kill charter schools, as well as universal ESAs? Genius plan if your goal is to remain the minority party at the Legislature. https://t.co/UwnqQJHbVG
Despite the pushback on their post and the subsequent deletion of it, the county party continued to attack school choice over the weekend, focusing its ire on the state’s universal ESA program. The southern Arizona Democrats wrote, “Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn’t your choice, it’s the school’s choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them.”
Did you know that even though Arizona private and charter schools are fueled by our ESA/Voucher tax dollars, they can turn away kids for any reason they want. School choice isn't your choice, it's the school's choice. 92% of AZ kids attend public schools. Fund them. pic.twitter.com/GD4WVBxA8D
Their account added, “Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It’s a scam folks.”
Private schools and Charter Schools are virtually non-existent in rural Arizona. The ESA and Voucher scam, robs rural public schools of their already dire funding, and gives it to parents in wealthy Scottsdale zip codes. It's a scam folks.
With the start of the Arizona legislative session just two months away, these sentiments from Democrats in the state’s second-largest county are instructive to ascertain how party activists will attempt to steer the policy movements on school choice issues. In the 2023 session, Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs failed to achieve any cuts or increased regulations on ESAs, angering members of her base who felt that she abandoned her campaign promises. After signing the budget she negotiated with Republican legislators, however, Hobbs turned up the dial on her attacks on the ESA program, attempting to smooth over the frustrations of Democrats around the state. The uptick in political bickering with ESAs will be a factor in navigating critical boxes to check, including the completion of the next fiscal year budget.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
An Arizona State University (ASU) law school professor deleted a viral tweet detailing a racially-motivated verbal attack against Muslims after it was publicly exposed as a fake.
ASU professor Khaled Beydoun shared a picture in which an individual allegedly called another a “dirty Arab” and told them to go back to the Middle East. Beydoun alleged that an Instagram follower sent him the picture of the exchange (archived here). Khaled’s alleged follower purportedly responded that he was unable to return to the Middle East because the U.S. “gave Israel $14 billion last week to destroy it (Gaza).”
However, users on X (formerly known as Twitter) added a Community Note pointing out that the alleged racial attack message was in blue; on Instagram, that means the complainant sent the racial attack message to himself or herself.
“Blue on Instagram means that the message was sent from his own phone,” said the fact-check note. “Khaled presumably sent the racist message to himself.”
Jen Wright, Arizona’s former assistant attorney general, also debunked Beydoun’s post, and criticized ASU for hiring a supporter of a designated foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, to teach courses advocating for Islam.
“Manufacturing bigotry for clicks is not a very inspiring image for @ASUCollegeofLaw,” said Wright. “Why does @ASUCollegeofLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia [sic] & about Race & the Law?”
Why does @ASUCollegeOfLaw have a Hamas propagandist who fakes victimhood and lies about the war in the Middle East teaching Islamaphobia & about Race & the Law?@asu has a wannabe Jessie Smollet on staff ginning up racial tensions. 🤦🏻♀️
Beydoun teaches two courses at ASU, both with an apparent progressive social justice slant: “Race and the Law,” and “Islamophobia and the Law.” ASU hired Beydoun in June.
Beydoun responded to the debunking of his post by emphasizing that he received the image from another individual, and claimed that those who fact-checked him were “bigots.” Beydoun didn’t apologize for the false claim.
“But people don’t read sadly,” said Beydoun. “If was [sic] flagged by bigots who didn’t read the caption then removed. Done deal, bigger fish to fry.”
Wright pointed out that Beydoun, with his massive platform (nearly 295,000 followers on Twitter and over 1.4 million followers on Instagram), was undertaking actions to exacerbate divisions.
“@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria,” said Wright. “As someone teaching Islamaphobia [sic] @ASUCollegeofLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions. Why add fuel to a powder keg on the verge of explosion?”
.@ASU prof deletes post after using his platform to spread fabricated hate to gin up hysteria.
As someone teaching Islamaphobia @ @ASUCollegeOfLaw, he must know that manufactured hate begets more hate, increasing tensions.
Wright pointed out that Beydoun also deleted another false post which used pictures from the war in Syria to accuse the Israel government of war crimes. Wright questioned Beydoun’s academic worth based on his consistent issuance of false information.
“[Beydoun] should know to fact check so he doesn’t make false & defamatory claims,” said Wright. “If he doesn’t fact check his posts, does he fact check his curriculum?”
Looks like he deleted the other post that used pictures from Syria in 2017 to lodge false accusations against @IsraeliPM alleging @IDF WAR CRIMES.
Beydoun’s latest book, “The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims,” included a foreword written by Kimberlé Crenshaw; she is credited for popularizing Critical Race Theory (CRT). In her foreword, Crenshaw noted that Beydoun was one of her Critical Race Studies students in 2001.
Last week, Beydoun also claimed that another one of his followers had ordered his book but had received a book on Israel instead.
Beydoun announced that all sale royalties would go to Gaza, governed by Hamas.
Following Hamas’ initial terrorist attack on Israel, Beydoun posted a quote from Malcolm X alluding that Hamas was the true victim and Israel was the true oppressor.
“Be careful. Ethnic cleaning [sic] becomes possible and permissible when you paint an entire people as terrorists,” said Beydoun. “‘If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people being oppressed, and loving those doing the oppressing.’ – Malcolm X.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The University of Arizona (UArizona) School of Music announced a new recording studio opportunity that excludes white and/or straight students.
In an email obtained by Libs of TikTok, UArizona School of Music administrator Marissa Garaygordobil informed students that BIPOC (black, indigenous, or people of color) students were welcome to audition for a free film scoring orchestra performance and recording opportunity in professional recording studios.
SCOOP: University of Arizona School of Music @UAZMusic, offered students an incredible opportunity to record with famous musicians and work in a professional music studio like Warner Bros or Sony.
This opportunity is only open for black students because they aim to “diversify… pic.twitter.com/w1s38sYWno
The opportunity came from the nonprofit Musicians at Play (MAP) Foundation and their annual RISE Diversity Project. Studio spaces were offered by Warner Brothers, Sony, and Fox for Feb. 17 and 18, 2024.
“RISE aims to diversify the world of film and studio recordings by assembling an orchestra of young, BIPOC musicians from all across Los Angeles to work side-by-side with professional studio musicians and perform and record in a world-class recording studio,” stated the project poster.
Although the poster itself doesn’t mention LGBTQ as a preferred qualifier for auditioning, one of the MAP Foundation organizers, John Acosta, announced on Facebook that the diversity program would also show preference to LGBTQ students.
“Musicians at Play (MAP)’s RISE 2024 Diversity Program for BIPOC/LGBTQ Music Students headed by Maestro Anthony Parnther, conductor from ages 14-27 is now open!! Free to join!! PLEASE SHARE FAR AND WIDE! DEADLINE 12/1/23,” wrote Acosta.
The opportunity also comes with four to six coaching sessions, as well as experience under Anthony Parnther, a California-based conductor who serves as the music director and conductor of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and music director of the Southeast Symphony. Parnther’s recent film and TV scoring work included “Oppenheimer,” “The Mandalorian” series, “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” “Creed III,” “Star Wars: the Force Awakens,” and the “Paw Patrol” movie.
Parnther co-founded the RISE Diversity Project, alongside MAP founder and CEO April Williams. He noted that the opportunity was the only one of its kind in the world.
“I’m committed to seeing diversity in all areas of music where I have any influence – including on our scoring stages,” said Parnther.
The MAP Foundation receives funding and support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the state of California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts & Culture, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA).
That last entity, the City of Los Angeles DCA, partnered with the MAP Foundation to hold the diversity project. The city last reported giving the foundation just over $5,000 for the 2021-22 fiscal year for a separate project. The city didn’t mention the amount of funding, if any, given for the RISE Diversity Program.
The NEA has given the MAP Foundation $20,000 since 2021. The California Arts Council has given the MAP Foundation over $326,600 over the years.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
