Christian University Claims Targeting by Biden Admin

Grand Canyon University, a Christian institution in Arizona, said it was "unjustly" targeted by the Biden administration.

The school said religion might be the motive behind investigations of its tax status by the Department of Education, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2018, Grand Canyon University, which was at that time a for-profit school, switched its status with the Internal Revenue Service, becoming a nonprofit institution at a time when record enrollment was taking place, making it one of the largest private Christian universities in the U.S., The Washington Examiner reported.

However, the Department of Education did not recognize the switch and continued to classify the school as a for-profit university.

The school was also included on a list of colleges that were deemed eligible for student loan forgiveness under a legal settlement in a case brought by students who had gone to for-profit colleges and claimed they had been defrauded when they took out student loans.

According to Grand Canyon University President Brian Mueller, the school has been the target of numerous investigations from the three federal agencies since switching its IRS status.

The complaints are those typically made against at-profit colleges, mainly that the school allegedly misrepresented itself and didn't sufficiently provide graduates with a return on their investment, and Mueller said the probes started as "fishing expeditions."

"They weren't accusing us of anything specifically, but they were requesting thousands and thousands and thousands of files, documents, etc., and they looked for what they thought they could find," Mueller said.

The school has sued the Department of Education while seeking to be recognized as a nonprofit institution, which will qualify it for benefits, including an increase in federal funding.

The VA at first accused Grand Canyon University of false advertising for its claim that cybersecurity jobs were in high demand to promote its cybersecurity degree program.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education centered its efforts on the university doctoral program, claiming the school misrepresented the program's costs on its website.

The university disagreed, saying there had been no complaints, but two weeks ago, the school was notified that the department would fine the institution.

"All the things that typically trigger the department to look into a university that uses Title IV funds was not true about us," Mueller said. "We [have] had a difficult time understanding why these investigations are taking place."

Mueller speculated that the investigations are coming because the Biden administration sees the school as being conservative but acknowledged there is no way to know what is going on.

"We're well supported locally in our state by both Republicans and Democrats and so people say, 'Why are they doing this? Is it ideological? Is it political? Is it religious?'" he said. "The answer is, We don't know," adding that the usual questions about student complaints are high default rates, high debt amounts, inferior facilities, inferior faculty, and lack of jobs for graduates to the university.

"We have stellar marks in all those areas," Mueller said. "There's just no reasonable explanation for why this is happening."

The FTC and VA did not comment on the complaints, but a spokesperson for the Department of Education defended its actions.

"Regarding this school, the Department included specific terms in the program participation agreement that allows Grand Canyon to participate in federal student aid programs," the spokesperson said. "Those terms are designed to protect students from what the Department determined were misrepresentations regarding the cost of some students' programs. This is the Department taking reasonable and prudent actions as a regulator."