Federal Higher Education Policy in the News Today -- July 13, 2020

Here are some federal higher education policy headlines in today's news:

Inside Higher Education reports on lawsuits filed against the U.S. Department of Education with regard to the new Title IX regulations: "The American Council on Education and more than 24 other higher education associations have asked the Education Department for more time to restructure campus policies and procedures. The associations have also asked a federal court to halt the implementation of the changes. The opponents argue that the new requirements place undue financial and time burdens on colleges and universities."

Late last week, President Trump tweeted that he would direct the U.S. Department of Treasury to review tax-exempt status for higher education institutions and other schools that, in his view, have become about "Radical Left Indoctrination, not Education." Inside Higher Education reports that "The threat in some ways resembled a 2017 tweet in which Trump raised the possibility of cutting federal funding for the University of California, Berkeley, over his belief the university had improperly restricted the free speech of conservative speakers." However, Bloomberg News reports: "President Donald Trump’s call to investigate the nonprofit status of universities could run into legal problems, including guardrails Congress placed on the IRS after a scandal over the agency’s scrutiny of nonprofit status of conservative political groups."

Finally, Inside Higher Education (citing the New York Times) reports: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hasn’t made public a document with information that could aid colleges and universities as they devise plans for reopening in the fall, The New York Times reported Friday. The revelation comes amid tensions between the White House and the CDC over how stringent the health-care agency’s guidelines should be for schools and colleges. The CDC issued a number of guidelines in May after, according to The Washington Post, the White House initially shelved them as being 'too specific.'”