Congress may cut federal funds that flow to colleges and universities that do not combat anti-Semitism on campuses, the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee warned Sunday.
“We cannot tolerate taxpayer money going to institutions that enable anti-Semitism and call for the genocide of Jews,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who chairs the panel that launched an investigation into the institutions of higher education last week. FoxNews.
The congresswoman emphasized that lawmakers are not prejudging the situation and told the outlet that the panel “will take the investigation wherever it takes us.”
Foxx announced an investigation into anti-Semitism on college campuses on Thursday, in the wake of the tense committee hearing that included the presidents of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania.
All three presidents were evasive when asked about condemning student chants, including so-called “intifada,” which House GOP Speaker Elise Stefanik (R-NY) noted is akin to pushing “the genocide of Jews.”
Facing backlash for her response, UPenn President Liz Magill resigned Saturday.
Representative Virginia Foxx condemned widespread moral corruption on college campuses. AP
“This is not just limited to these campuses. We want to look at Columbia, Cornell and many, many other institutions,” Foxx emphasized.
“It should be very easy. “This country was founded on religious freedom,” he added. “It should not be difficult to condemn anti-Semitism and the call for genocide of the Jews or any other people.”
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs or activities that receive government money.
Cases of reported anti-Semitic activity on campuses spiked after the bloody Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel by Hamas.
The fallout from Congressional testimony resulted in the resignation of UPenn President Liz Magill (R), while calls for the departure of Harvard President Claudine Gay continue. AP
Students, who often espouse pro-Palestinian sentiments, have been caught trafficking in Hamas rhetoric against Jews, including repeating phrases like “intifada” and “from the river to the sea.”
Before the congressional hearing last Tuesday, Republicans highlighted the accounts of four Jewish students who emotionally recounted their harrowing experiences on campus.
“People are paying attention because we have moral corruption,” Foxx said, adding that his panel has been trying to address postsecondary education reform broadly for “a long time.”
“I don’t call them elite institutions, I call them the most expensive institutions in the country,” he said. “They’re not teaching morality, they’re not teaching higher-order thinking.”
Even so, “we do not want to prejudge what we are going to find in these investigations,” he added.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn