Schools that don’t fight antisemitism, Islamophobia could lose funding, Education secretary warns

The Secretary of Education warned schools Tuesday that if they don’t fight antisemitism and Islamophobia, they could lose federal funding.

“We want to promote free speech and, to be frank with you, college campuses are where students should be able to express different opinions. But when it comes to antisemitism or Islamophobia, that has no place on our college campuses or in our schools,” secretary Miguel Cardona said in a CNN interview.

The interview follows competing pressures to maintain school safety and freedom of speech at college campuses across the country. Schools say that with the current rhetoric around the Israel-Hamas war, they are trying to strike a balance between safety and free speech.

At the end of last month, students at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., faced backlash for projecting anti-Israel messages on the side of a library on campus. The event even attracted the attention of national politicians.

“As an alumni of @GWtweets they should launch an investigation. I look forward to seeing the University statement on this,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The Students for Justice in Palestine group at George Washington was behind the projections, which were later shut down by the university police, according to student newspaper The GW Hatchet.

“I feel very frustrated with how the University has responded,” a representative told the student newspaper. “They have consistently shown that they do not respect our lives. They do not respect our right to free speech. They do not respect our right to organize against the ongoing genocide that is happening to our people.”