American colleges must respect free speech in order to receive certain discretionary grant funding from the Department of Education, according to newly finalized priorities that went into effect this week. This shift signals a new era in higher education policy in which public colleges could feel financial consequences for not upholding students’ constitutional rights.
The appointment of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education was perhaps the most contentious Cabinet confirmation battle in the first year of the Trump administration. Cheered and jeered for her unwavering support for school choice, many education observers expected sweeping changes once she took office to correct the bureau’s Obama-era excesses.
However, for better or worse, 2017 mostly passed without a major change of course in the federal education world. It was not until late September that the Education Department finally reversed the Obama administration’s infamous 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter advising colleges to use the lowest standard of proof, “preponderance of the evidence,” in disciplinary hearings for sexual assault.
That momentum for reform seems to be gaining steam in 2018, judging by newly finalized grant priorities that went into effect this week. In particular, a response to comment that the Education Department published last month in the Federal Register suggests that protecting free speech on college campuses will be a main priority in their grant-making moving forward.
Last October, the department proposed 11 priorities for universities to keep in mind when submitting requests for funding. One priority explicitly mentioned “protecting free speech in order to allow for the discussion of diverse ideas or viewpoints.” Judging from the department’s summary of comments released in March, it seems as if some lefty administrators took notice, even going so far as to claim that there’s no free speech crisis on America’s college campuses:
The department did not back down in its response, respectfully putting the commenters in their place:
Changes: None.
These comments are a welcome stand for from a federal bureau who has not been the strongest protector of students’ rights in recent years. There’s a new sheriff in town on Maryland Avenue — one that finally cares about free speech in the educational institutions that need it the most.
Casey Given (@CaseyJGiven) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the executive director of Young Voices.
