Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-North Carolina, referred to as for the resignation of U.S. Secretary of Schooling Miguel Cardona on Tuesday, blasting him for not condemning the mantra “from the river to the ocean, Palestine shall be free” as being antisemitic.
Referencing reporting from the Jewish Insider, Foxx stated in an announcement that Cardona’s refusal to acknowledge the mantra utilized by pro-Palestine demonstrators as antisemitic quantities to “cowardly evasion.”
“Sadly, that is simply the newest instance in an extended file of abject failure,” stated Foxx, who serves as chair of the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, within the assertion. The remarks that Foxx was referring to got here throughout Tuesday feedback to reporters from Jewish media shops.
Throughout these remarks, Cardona said that the division does have a method to handle antisemitism that’s targeted particularly on that problem, including that no pupil ought to really feel they “can’t be who they’re unapologetically due to the circumstances on campus.”
In an announcement supplied to Okay-12 Dive on Wednesday, a division spokesperson stated, “Secretary Cardona has been constant that requires genocide must not ever be tolerated, that antisemitism can embrace anti-Zionist statements, and that college leaders have a accountability to behave when college students really feel unsafe on campus.”
“He and the Division are acutely conscious that many discover the mantra threatening and antisemitic,” the spokesperson stated. “College students ought to by no means really feel unsafe on campuses, and the Division’s Workplace for Civil Rights will proceed to analyze universities to make sure they handle a hostile studying setting to make sure the security of all college students.”
Cardona acquired additional criticism from some followers on X, previously referred to as Twitter, for not together with antisemitism in a Tuesday submit wherein he stated stated he has been “deeply disturbed” by will increase in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian harassment in colleges.
Nonetheless, he has beforehand addressed antisemitism particularly in regard to the Schooling Division’s Antisemitism Consciousness Marketing campaign and efforts to handle discrimination towards Jewish college students.
I’ve been deeply disturbed by the current spike in anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian harassment in colleges. And we’ve been tragically reminded how hatred can all too simply flip into violence.
Hate has no place in our nation’s lecture rooms or on our school campuses. https://t.co/ihU2eYMofD
— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) February 6, 2024
Foxx’s demand for Cardona’s resignation comes as Home Republicans failed in a Tuesday evening vote to question Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over alleged failures on immigration and border safety.
Along with the costs regarding antisemitism, Foxx alleged that the U.S. Schooling Division beneath Cardona had directed assets towards “unconstitutional schemes rooted in a willful disdain for the Structure and the rule of regulation.”
She additional stated it had engaged in “bungling and deliberate misuse of taxpayer {dollars}” and “willfully exceeded its statutory authority” in a “spending spree” that led to the company “failing its two most up-to-date audits.” These audits of the division’s fiscal yr monetary statements, performed by the agency KPMG LLC, had been the topic of a Jan. 17 letter to Cardona from Foxx and Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pennsylvania.
Foxx additionally criticized the division’s dealing with of the current overhaul of the Free Software for Federal Pupil Assist. The rollout of the brand new kind has been tormented by delays and technical glitches, resulting in considerations about tight turnaround for schools to get award gives to college students and for college kids to make selections on the place to attend.
