Education Department Finds That 2 Schools Failed Jewish, Muslim Students

(RepublicanView.org) – The US Department of Education has found that two US colleges failed to respond properly to reports of discrimination against Arab and Jewish students on their campuses. The department has reportedly reached resolution agreements with the schools, which plan to look at some of their previous cases again.

The resolutions issued on June 17 by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights come in response to troubling incidents that have occurred on the campuses of the City University of New York and the University of Michigan amid Israel’s war on Hamas.

Miguel Cardona, who currently serves as the Education Department’s secretary, condemned the “hate” and said that it has no place on campuses. He called this a “challenging moment” for US schools and spoke positively about the “commitments” made by the two schools in question.

Large waves of students and activists at colleges across the nation have been marching in solidarity with Palestine. The protests began shortly after Israel responded to a surprise attack launched by Hamas in October 2023. More than 1,200 people were killed and 240 were taken hostage at the time. Protesters have been critical of Israel’s response, with many accusing it of “genocide” against the Palestinian people.

The Department of Education has since launched dozens of investigations into civil rights infringements on colleges across the nation. They have discovered an alarming number of schools with ambiguous policies and a lack of investigations regarding cases of discrimination and harassment. Both Jewish and Muslim students have reported feeling unsafe.

The schools could lose access to federal funding, including student loans, if they refuse to comply with the department’s resolutions. Continued funding would violate laws that prohibit discrimination based on ancestry, national origin, and ethnic attributes. Those policies also detail how schools must investigate related incidents if they want to continue receiving federal funding.

The OCR accused the University of Michigan of refusing to investigate one Jewish student’s complaint after he reported being harassed on Instagram. The school simply told him that “formal conflict resolution is not a path forward at this time.”