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.
The city of Flagstaff is poised to implement a uniform ban on all paid advertising at the Pulliam Airport following the threat of a lawsuit for banning a firearms ad.
This latest proposal comes after pushback to the city’s proposed prohibition on firearms advertising, a policy that came about after denying admission of an ad from an indoor shooting facility, Timberline Firearms and Training.
During the city council’s work session meeting on Tuesday, councilwoman Lori Matthews said that the city didn’t rely on the airport advertising for its revenue stream, and that determining what could be deemed offensive was too time-consuming and problematic.
“I feel that that’s a more equitable way to do it so that we’re not having discussions every time there’s something we didn’t think about,” said Matthews.
City manager Greg Clifton concurred with Matthews’ view that the potential cost and effort of defending advertising policy to the public and in court would far exceed the airport’s revenue stream.
“We’re talking, maybe, tens of thousands of dollars annually,” said Clifton. “This is not worth it.”
Mayor Becky Daggett agreed; she said that they’d already spent far too much time on their part and on staff’s part to review, debate, and refine the policy.
The Goldwater Institute, which sent a demand letter on behalf of Wilson, told AZ Free News that this latest move by the city was an effort to maintain control and shut out opposing views.
“The city is tying itself in knots to suppress viewpoints it doesn’t like. First, the city violated Rob’s constitutional rights by falsely claiming his ad shows ‘violence or anti-social behavior.’ Then, officials got to work crafting a new airport advertising policy specifically meant to target Rob and his business: an unconstitutional ban on all firearms-related airport ads,” said the organization. “After the Goldwater Institute made clear this new policy wouldn’t stand up in court, officials are now considering a blanket ban on all advertising at the airport rather than defend an indefensible position. There’s a better way: the city should simply allow Rob to run his harmless ad, as he has already done thousands of times, with no complaints.”
The Goldwater Institute sent legal notice to the city last month. In September, Republican lawmakers also warned the city that their proposed ban would be unconstitutional and unlawful.
During the Tuesday meeting, deputy city attorney Kevin Fincel discussed the new draft city advertising policy. Part of the presentation lamented that widespread press coverage of the firearms ban portion of the policy had resulted in controversy, and that some quotes by the press were inaccurate or misleading.
Specifically, the city took issue that multiple outlets included the following quote from the Goldwater Institute claiming that Flagstaff was “abusing its power to push an anti-gun agenda.”
Fincel noted that Timberline Firearms hadn’t run an ad in the airport since 2019. The city maintained that it hadn’t banned the shooting range from advertising, just that specific ad submitted.
“I don’t think Timberline was denied the ability to run an ad at the airport. I think, again, Timberline wanted to run a certain ad at the airport that staff took issue with or possibly discuss to edit,” said Fincel. “I think there was a narrative too, […] it was never an attempt to prevent Timberline from advertising, definitely not from the city,
The city included a July 7 email from Economic Vitality director Heidi Hansen to Wilson, citing it as proof that the city offered alternative advertising opportunities through Discover Flagstaff. The email offered no guarantee that the alternative would allow Wilson’s ad.
“Further, to our Discover Flagstaff, business relationship, they are very good at listening, understanding and then providing a plan,” said Hansen in the email. “They are very accessible, responsive, and reactive, they pivot when we need to pivot – they understand our business as many staff have worked in Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO). If you are interested in learning more and seeing how they might be able to cast a local net for you, I would give one of them a call to get more information. It’s an extremely targeted way to advertise.” (emphasis added)
City staff charged with reviewing ads for approval took issue with the ad because it depicted an individual firing a gun at a paper silhouette target. The city claimed that the ad conflicted with guidelines barring the representation of “violence or antisocial behavior.”
The contested ad by Timber Firearms and Training may be watched below:
The city plans to take action on a finalized version of the ban on paid advertising at the Pulliam Airport on Nov. 21.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Last week, the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services (ADVS) announced that “Arizona National Guardsmen and Reservists (would be) eligible for burial in Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemeteries beginning in 2024.” The cemeteries participating in these burials are Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery in Sierra Vista, Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery at Marana and Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo.
Dana Allmond, the ADVS Cabinet Executive Officer, stated, “Honoring all of our service members and their families equally from every branch and component of the military is fundamental to our commitment to ensure there are no barriers to the benefits and services they have earned.”
The release from ADVS shared that this development “is the result of the Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act signed by President Biden in 2022, and the passage of HB 2670 by the Arizona Legislature back in July which allows for all Non-Veteran National Guard and Reserve members to be interred at ADVS Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemeteries.”
HB 2670 was sponsored by Arizona State Representative Stacey Travers. The bill sailed through both chambers of the legislature earlier this year with broad bipartisan support, and it was signed into law by Governor Hobbs on August 1. Hobbs expressed her pride in signing this legislation, writing, “I was proud to sign this bill and support Arizona veterans. Those who put their lives on the line for our country deserve the best and I will continue working to ensure they get what they need.”
I was proud to sign this bill and support Arizona veterans. Those who put their lives on the line for our country deserve the best and I will continue working to ensure they get what they need. https://t.co/rN14iW6K56
Representative Travers responded to the governor’s affirmation of her efforts, saying, “Veterans issues are, and should always be nonpartisan. Thank you Governor Hobbs for signing, and to all my colleagues in the legislature who voted for this important piece of legislation.”
Veterans issues are, and should always be nonpartisan. Thank you @GovernorHobbs for signing, and to all my colleagues in the legislature who voted for this important piece of legislation. https://t.co/UrDbkTrqE9
According to the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, “families interested in interment at an Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery” are encouraged to submit “an application for pre-determination for burial,” which can be filled out online. ADVS added that “cemetery staff at Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery and Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery at Camp Navajo will hold applications and begin reaching out to families to make burial arrangements after 1/1/2024.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
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.
Two of the largest private equity firms in the U.S. and the world, Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone, respectively, are now backing the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures in Arizona’s utility companies.
The two globalist ESG-focused companies acquired Energy Exemplar on Halloween. Energy Exemplar owns Aurora Software Consulting Services, used by Arizona’s utilities to provide all modeling and analysis for the resource plans submitted to Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).
The resource plans submitted by Arizona Public Services (APS), Tucson Electric Power (TEP), and UniSource Energy Services (UNS) Electric largely align with the energy transition directives set forth by Net Zero by 2050.
“Consistent with these overall trends in the energy market. APS has committed to being 100% clean and carbon free by 2050,” stated the APS resource plan.
“[Our resource plan] outlines the sources we anticipate using to satisfy customers’ need for reliable, affordable energy over the next 15 years while working toward a new, long-term objective of net zero direct greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” stated TEP.
“[Our company has a] long-term transition to zero carbon emissions by 2050,” stated UNS Electric.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) — of which the U.S. is a member — came up with Net Zero by 2050, the roadmap to globalize the energy sector by total decarbonization, or achieving net zero carbon emissions, by 2050. Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners are among the biggest financial backers of the effort.
Specifically, Net Zero by 2050 aims to eliminate all emissions-producing energy sources (namely fossil fuels) by replacing them with less reliable renewable energy sources like solar and wind, bioenergies like biomethane, or hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels; instituting greater energy efficiency measures, such as reducing appliance energy consumption and reducing heating and cooling temperature consumption; and electrifying all fossil fuels-based products, such as cars, buses, trucks, heat pumps, and furnaces for steel production.
The campaign also aims to institute behavioral changes among the world’s populace, such as replacing driving with walking, cycling, or public transit, and in some cases foregoing flights entirely.
By 2030, the campaign proposes to introduce eco-driving and motorway speed limits of 60 miles an hour, phasing out gas cars in large cities (dubbed “ICE” cars, which stands for “internal combustion engine”), reducing “excessive” hot water temperatures, reducing the average weight of a passenger car by 10 percent, limiting the average space heating temperature to about 68 degrees and average space cooling temperature to 77 degrees.
By 2050, the campaign proposes to replace regional flights with high-speed rail, preventing business and long-haul leisure air travel from exceeding 2019 levels, improving fertilizer use efficiency by 10 percent, and reducing the use of “energy-intensive” materials per unit floor area by 30 percent.
The Biden administration is fully on board with Net Zero by 2050; the State Department issued its own roadmap on the matter in November 2021.
Blackstone, which manages about $1 trillion in assets, has committed to supporting the globalist goal of net zero by 2050. Per its 2022 climate-related financial disclosures report last year, the company estimated that it would take $115 trillion to reach net zero by 2050. The company invested about $100 billion toward that goal last year, and launched a dedicated credit platform for their ESG goals.
In 2021, Vista Equity Partners was among the first American private equity firms to join the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative. They pledged to reduce their $100 billion in portfolio companies’ emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and emit net zero greenhouse gas emission across their portfolio by 2050.
NZAM, launched in December 2020, is a formal partner of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Race to Zero Campaign. NZAM is regarded as the world’s largest climate finance alliance, with over 300 companies maintaining about $64 trillion in assets as of September. Blackstone is not part of NZAM.
As reported last month, ACC responded to controversy over utilities’ implementation of ESG policies with the claim that it lacked the authority to ban them from doing so.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
