Ark. governor and ed secretary bow up with letter to the feds on scholar loans, Christian persecution

On Tuesday, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and state Training Secretary Jacob Oliva are attempting their finest to choose a struggle with the federal authorities over scholar mortgage forgiveness and the supposed persecution of Christians The duo despatched a mean letter to U.S. Training Secretary Miguel Cardona on the eve of his journey to Arkansas to let him know we don’t like his type round right here.

“You’ll be in Little Rock tomorrow to tout President Biden’s unconstitutional scholar mortgage forgiveness program and try to clarify your division’s disastrous rollout of updates to the Free Software for Federal Scholar Assist (FAFSA),” they wrote. “We welcome you to our state, however we concern that this go to will solely serve to focus on a few of your administration’s worst errors.”

Can y’all really feel the Southern hospitality?

Sanders’ and Oliva’s criticism on FAFSA is truthful. A delayed rollout of a new system has served up glitches and frustration, leading to considerably fewer college students making use of for federal loans and grants in 2024 in comparison with previous years. And since the FAFSA type can be the premise of most state- and college-based support applications, these FAFSA delays and snafus are holding up extra than simply federal support.

However we thought Sanders didn’t need to assist college students who can’t pay for their very own larger training? She tells us so on this exact same letter. Sanders rails in opposition to President Joe Biden’s scholar mortgage forgiveness applications as a result of she stated it forces “Arkansans who selected to not attend school to pay for others’ training.”

Isn’t that what federally backed grants and loans do?

And take a look at swapping out “non-public faculty” for “school” within the quote above, and “tuition” for “training.” Forcing “Arkansans who selected to not attend school non-public faculty to pay for others’ training tuition” is Sanders’ LEARNS Act in a nutshell. What’s the distinction?

The letter to Cardona goes on to fire up evangelical grievance, accusing the Biden administration of attacking the church, freedom and oldsters.

“You’ve promised to close down the nation’s largest Christian college. You oppose training freedom. You assault dad and mom who communicate up for his or her kids’s training in school board conferences,” Sanders and Oliva wrote. (The unstated subtext right here is that Cardona burns American flags and kills bald eagles for enjoyable, too.)

The Christian college referenced right here is Grand Canyon University, a web based diploma mill akin to the College of Phoenix, however with a Jesus vibe. The U.S. Division of Training discovered that Grand Canyon was giving college students estimates of how a lot their superior levels would price, then charging them much more. For his or her sins, Grand Canyon College was fined $37.7 million.

Final week, Cardona known as Grand Canyon a predatory, for-profit operation preying on first-generation People. Fox News took note and couched the controversy as an assault on Christians who, I suppose, ought to benefit from the non secular freedom to get fleeced for overpriced and nugatory levels.

It’s noteworthy that Oliva, who got here to Arkansas by the use of Florida, the anti-wokest of states, cosigned the letter. Is there something right here that may assist Oliva higher serve Arkansas college students? No. However it’s going to extra firmly affix him to the rightwingers who paint rubbish as gold.

“Throughout your go to, we hope you see that Arkansas is main on training whereas the U.S. Division of Training is leaving college students and households behind,” Sanders and Oliva wrote.

Because the secretary of training for this entire nation, Cardona is aware of good and properly that Arkansas is not leading on education in any means.

Claiming we’re the perfect in training received’t make it so. Neither will writing huffy, politically charged letters chock stuffed with contradictory conservative speaking factors.

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