Education Secretary clashes with top Democrat over Harvard funding

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Donald Trump 's Education Secretary had a fiery clash with a top Democrat over funding for Harvard. Linda McMahon was on Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on her department's budget for next year.
During an exchange with Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), McMahon passionately defended the Trump administration's targeting of diversity programs at elite Ivy League institutions including Harvard and Columbia.
'How do you ask them to end diversity programs while instituting viewpoint diversity? This seems to be totally contradictory, ' Murphy pressed McMahon, kicking off the heated exchange.
'You know, the diversity programs that we've asked and demanded to be eliminated, were the DEI, where they were. Those programs actually were pitting one group against another,' McMahon responded.
'Is viewpoint diversity a diversity program?' Murphy asked. 'A viewpoint diversity is exchange of ideas. It's actually better, absolutely. We're now here because Harvard only has 3 percent by its own numbers, 3 percent conservative faculty. Do you think they are allowing enough of viewpoint diversity through that teaching?' McMahon argued.
Murphy said: 'Where in the statute, where in the statute, does it give you the ability to cut off federal funding for a university based upon your decision, your determination, that they don't have viewpoint diversity?'
'Can you cite to a statute an authority the Congress has given you to micromanage the viewpoint diversity of a college.' 'Can you cite a statute? If you can't cut off your funding for universities, unless you have a statutory authorization to do so. So what statute gives you the right to tell any university that they have to have a certain mixture of viewpoints...I think you have to say the statute,' Murphy continued.
'The statute is Title VI , these are civil rights violations. That is why we filed a case and defunded or stopped the funding for a while for Harvard, as well as we did Columbia … under federal funding if you are breaking the law, which they did under Title VI,' McMahon responded. 'I don't understand any conception of civil rights law to give you the authorization to micromanage viewpoint diversity on campus. That's, that's not authorized under the Civil Rights title provided to you by the United States Congress,' Murphy concluded.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance. In April, the Trump Administration froze over $2 billion in research grants at Harvard. Federal funding made up over two-thirds of research funding received by the university in fiscal year 2024, to the tune of $686 million.
The Trump administration has also moved to bar Harvard from enrolling foreign students in May, but the action was blocked by a U.S. District Judge in Boston on May 29. Columbia University, also called out by McMahon in her testimony on Capitol Hill, relies on the federal government for 22 percent of its funding, which amounted to over $1.2 billion during the 2022–23 academic year, according to a report from the Urban Institute.