Plenty to go around: The Trump administration has revoked $430 million in federal grant money from Columbia University. The school's president, Katrina Armstrong, doesn't appear keen on implementing reforms that would put Columbia on a path to restoring its relationship with the federal government. So what should the administration do with the money? We have ideas.
"There is something rotten in American higher education," our editors write, "but the rot is far more severe at America's elite private institutions than at their public counterparts." $430 million could go a long way "if spread across the SEC to fund programs teaching American kids how to build drones." But it doesn't need to go to college students. $430 million "for vocational training for kids who aren't going to college—building roads and bridges and anything else that requires wavy equipment and hard work and the skills that will be necessary if the worst comes to pass in a confrontation with China" would be an upgrade, too.
"Elite schools act as though they are entitled to federal dollars while indoctrinating students to hate the very government that subsidizes their work. Enough. Let them hold bake sales for research into transgender mice, and let the federal government pour money into young people who would use their skills and education to make this country strong, to grow our industrial base, and to prepare us for the conflict we all fear is on the horizon."
READ MORE: What the Trump Administration Should Do With Columbia’s $430 Million
Get those records ready: Nearly one year ago, the Free Beacon blew the top off of a scandal surrounding the use of racial preferences in admissions at UCLA's medical school. Now, as a direct result of that report, the Department of Health and Human Services is investigating whether the school holds black and Hispanic applicants to a lower academic standard than their white and Asian counterparts, our Aaron Sibarium reports.
The probe marks "an escalation of a scandal that enveloped the medical school last year and raised questions about whether the doctors it was graduating were up to snuff," writes Sibarium. Admissions officers who spoke with the Free Beacon said "students were failing basic exams in record droves" and that administrators "frequently pushed through unqualified minority candidates in an effort to diversify the school."
"As a medical center that receives federal funds, UCLA is subject to multiple laws banning race discrimination. If HHS determines that the school violated those laws, it could lose millions in federal grants—a penalty that the Trump administration has imposed on Columbia University, pending corrective action, over its failure to combat anti-Semitism. Many of the canceled grants involved medical research."
READ MORE: Trump Administration Opens Investigation Into UCLA Medical School In Wake of DEI Admissions Scandal
Heeding Hamas's call: Tehran's state-controlled media published a message from Hamas on Thursday urging the terror group's global supporters "to mobilize on the upcoming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday" in honor of International Quds Day, an Iran-established "holiday" meant to demonstrate worldwide opposition toward Israel. Their loyal foot soldiers in the United States are listening.
Students for Justice in Palestine and its pro-Hamas friends, including Code Pink and the Muslim Action Committee, will assemble in Times Square today "in support of Palestine" and "against Zionism." SJP's "central role in organizing Quds Day activities domestically," the Free Beacon's Adam Kredo writes, "reflects the group's continued reliance on Hamas for guidance."
"Since Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror spree, SJP has served as Hamas's 'U.S.-based in-house public relations firm,' according to a lawsuit filed earlier this week by American and Israeli terror victims. U.S. intelligence has long indicated that Hamas's patrons in Iran encouraged and funded anti-Israel campus protests in America.
"In Tehran, Quds Day activities will kick off Friday morning, when hoards of Iranians will take to the streets to burn the American flag, chant anti-Israel slogans, and pray for Israel's destruction. In the United States, the demonstrations are likely to look similar, with SJP bringing its signature brand of anti-Semitic agitation to Manhattan's streets."
Away from the Beacon:
- Liberation day in Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan is shuttering its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, it announced Thursday, bringing an end to an effort that the school put a quarter of a billion dollars behind with little to show for it. Good riddance.
- Gavin Newsom, asked whether he's "on track" to meet what he called an "audacious goal" to build 2.5 million housing units in California by 2030, said he's "not even close." His goal was actually 3.5 million units.
- Speaking of California, the Golden State needs another $7 billion by next summer to proceed on its long-troubled high-speed rail project. It's already spent $106 billion, millions of which has gone to graffiti removal and DEI initiatives.