NASHVILLE, TN (November 15, 2024) – U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona regarding the agency’s decision to turn a blind eye to academic institutions using federal funding to promote radical, anti-Israel viewpoints:
Biden-Harris’ Education Department Has Funneled Millions of Dollars to Universities with Extremist, Anti-Israel Professors
“Since Hamas’ murder of over 1,200 people in Israel on October 7, 2023, many Jews have reported facing harassment, intimidation, and physical assault on campus. Now, it seems that the Department is funneling money toward programs that are facilitating, rather than combating, the sources of this surge in the world’s oldest hatred. Since 2020, the Department has allocated $283 million in foreign studies grants to the Title VI National Resource Centers (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grant programs. According to a report by a government watchdog group, over $22.1 million of that funding has gone toward both FLAS and NRC grants in the Middle East — the top recipients being Columbia University and Georgetown University. Both schools have cited extremist, anti- Israel professors in their grant applications.”
Columbia Professor Backed by Federal Funding Characterized Hamas Attack as a ‘Stunning Victory’
“As has become all too common during the Biden-Harris administration, these taxpayer funds are bankrolling radical anti-Israel initiatives. When the Department is directing taxpayer funds toward professors who demonize the Jewish state and back organizations with ties to terrorism, it raises questions regarding whether certain academic institutions are complying with the congressional mandates laid out in Title VI. For example, a 2022-2023 FLAS grant totaling $653,632 funded at least one student’s ability to take Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad’s course, ‘Gender and Sexuality in the Arab World.’ Alarmingly, the day after the worst attack perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, Professor Massad published an abhorrent article in The Electronic Intifada characterizing the Hamas terrorist attack as ‘a stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.’ It is unfathomable that a terrorist supporter such as Professor Massad is receiving taxpayer funding to indoctrinate his students with anti-Israel propaganda.”
Taxpayer Dollars Should Not Empower Terrorist-Sympathizing Professors to Indoctrinate Students
“The Biden-Harris administration should not channel American taxpayer dollars toward extremist professors who inculcate their students with hatred of America’s strongest ally — and sole democracy — in the Middle East. This potential abuse of taxpayer funds is not just wasteful but may run contrary to the intent of the programs and the law.”
Click here for the full text of the letter.
