BREAKING: Governor Gavin Newsom fights FIRE WITH FIRE and announces that California will cut off all funding to any college that signs Donald Trump's MAGA loyalty pledge.
This is a brilliant chess move from Newsom...
"IF ANY CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY SIGNS THIS RADICAL AGREEMENT, THEY'LL LOSE BILLIONS IN STATE FUNDING — INCLUDING CAL GRANTS — INSTANTLY," Newsom wrote on X. "CALIFORNIA WILL NOT BANKROLL SCHOOLS THAT SELL OUT THEIR STUDENTS, PROFESSORS, RESEARCHERS, AND SURRENDER ACADEMIC FREEDOM."
The post included a screenshot of a New York Times report on the Trump administration's new "compact." The administration sent a document to nine major universities asking them to commit to the MAGA agenda in return for preferred access to federal funds.
By signing the compact, the universities would be committing to remaining lockstep on Trump's pet issues including his definition of gender. They'd have to apply that definition to campus bathrooms, locker rooms, and women's sport teams. Schools would have to stop considering, race, gender, and other key demographics in the admissions process (a red meat issue for the white nationalist segment of Trump's base).
International enrollment would be capped at 15% for a given college's undergraduate body and no more than 5% could come from the same country.
More broadly, the unversities would have to aggressively push conservative viewpoints. For example, they'd have to make sure that their campuses are "vibrant marketplace of ideas," which in practice would mean astroturfing right-wing beliefs and suppressing leftist thought. They'd also have to inflate the number of professors who are conservative and would be tasked with “transforming or abolishing institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas.”
According to the administration, signing the compact will grant universities "multiple positive benefits" that include “substantial and meaningful federal grants” and “increased overhead payments where feasible."
“It’s not worth the compromises that they would have to make. This is a Faustian bargain," said Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education.
Newsom's threat to these universities carries real bite. Cal Grants is a massive student financial aid program totaling $2.8 billion. Losing access to it would be disastrous for these colleges. This is what we need from our Democratic leadership. Fight back with concrete threats. Democracy is on the line. Via: Occupy Democrats
