WASHINGTON (CITC) — Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to resign Tuesday after he struggled to condemn the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce chairwoman accused Cardona of cowardly evading a denunciation of the cry frequently used by supporters of Palestine.
“Jewish students deserve to know that their education secretary understands the hate they face and has the necessary courage and clarity to confront it,” Rep. Foxx noted.
Cardona's struggle came while the education secretary was speaking with reporters Tuesday. He revealed he finds it challenging to provide a finite opinion on the phrase.
“We investigate each case, and it’s difficult for me to make a statement here about that. If students are feeling unsafe with that, it’s the responsibility of leadership to act,” Cardona determined, according to Jewish Insider. “I believe antisemitism can include anti-Zionist statements ... We take that into account when looking at cases.”
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An Education Department spokesperson claimed Cardona is “acutely” aware students find the cry antisemitic and threatening.
“Secretary Cardona has been consistent that calls for genocide must never be tolerated,” the spokesperson told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC) Thursday. “Students should never feel unsafe on campuses, and the department’s Office for Civil Rights will continue to investigate universities to ensure they address a hostile learning environment to ensure the safety of all students.”
Rep. Foxx says the education secretary’s assertion is the latest example in a “long record of abject failure.” The Education Department recently failed a second annual audit of its finances due to “unresolved errors” with loan programs data.
"His department has so willfully exceeded its statutory authority in its spending spree that it has failed its two most recent audits,” the chairwoman said. “Now, millions of families and students may lose their chance at an opportunity to pursue postsecondary education because his department couldn’t properly update the FAFSA even after Congress granted the department an additional year.”
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Rep. Foxx alleges Cardona’s perceived failures are mostly due to his direction of the Education Department’s resources to unconstitutional “schemes” rooted in a “willful disdain” for the Constitution.
"This nation deserves much better than bungling and deliberate misuse of taxpayer dollars,” she stated.
The chairwoman previously demanded Cardona testify at a congressional hearing over the second audit failure.
“We expect you to be fully knowledgeable and conversant with the matters raised in the auditor’s report and to provide complete answers to members’ questions at the hearing,” Rep. Foxx wrote in a letter obtained by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.
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