The Biden administration is demanding that colleges bend the knee…or else—so the Goldwater Institute is confronting the bureaucratic bullies head-on.
The Department of Education just imposed its largest ever fine, $37.7 million, on Phoenix’s Grand Canyon University as Biden’s higher ed regulators continue their “mission to destroy institutions that do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy at government-run schools,” Goldwater’s Jon Riches and Matt Beienburg write at Fox News. Now we’re demanding the agency turn over public records of this government collusion—or we’ll sue.
Jealous of GCU’s success as a private college that educates America’s students efficiently and inexpensively—all while refusing to adhere to the tenets of progressivism—the feds retaliated under the pretext of claiming that the most highly educated students at GCU can’t read tuition brochures. (As for the fine, it’s a whopping 10 times bigger than that levied against schools who covered up some of the worst sex offenders in U.S. history.)
It’s clear, Riches and Beienburg conclude, that these bullies are “more concerned with indoctrination than with graduating successful students.”
Read more at Fox News.
Three years running. That’s how long the Yuma County, Ariz., government has been using backroom maneuvers to bypass the will of the people and illegally ram property taxes down residents’ throats.
The buck stops here. This week, Goldwater sued the government to end the tax scheme on behalf of a local taxpayer.
For each of the past three years, the Yuma County Hospital District, a governmental body, has been sending its budget straight to the county Board of Supervisors so that the board can directly impose property taxes on residents. But as our lawsuit explains, Arizona law allows special districts like the Yuma County Hospital District to impose property taxes only after obtaining voter approval for the tax.
From defeating Prop 208’s massive, unconstitutional tax hike, to enacting the lowest flat tax rate in America, to reinforcing Arizona’s ban on giving taxpayer funds to private companies, to vanquishing Pinal County’s illegal transportation excise tax in the state Supreme Court, Goldwater has worked hard to ensure that Arizona has some of the best taxpayer protections in the country. We won’t let the government use backroom maneuvers to take taxpayers’ hard-earned money without democratic accountability.
Read more here.
The Goldwater Institute is standing up for a conservative reporter after an Arizona school district blacklisted him for his political views.
Last week, radio host Jeff Oravits of Flagstaff, Ariz., asked the Flagstaff Unified School District to add him to the district’s “media list”—a list of media outlets that the district uses to share press releases and other information with journalists. A district official then started interrogating Jeff about his politics, repeatedly asking whether his radio program was a “partisan show.” Then, he told Jeff he wouldn’t include him on the list, saying the district only allowed “non-partisan media.”
But the First Amendment doesn’t make exceptions for viewpoints the government doesn’t like. That’s why the Goldwater Institute sent a letter to the district calling out this blatant violation of Jeff’s constitutional right to free speech and demanding that it treat him the same as any other reporter.
“Every single day, Goldwater fights for free speech and limited government in Arizona and around the country,” Goldwater Staff Attorney John Thorpe writes. “We won’t back down until the Flagstaff Unified School District does the right thing and stops violating Jeff’s constitutional rights.”
Read more here.
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