Horne Tells US Education Secretary To Stop Threatening To Shut Down Grand Canyon University

Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Michael Cardona urging him to abandon his threat to shut down Grand Canyon University and instead meet with the school’s leadership to iron out their differences.

Cardona vowed to shut the university down during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee. Cardona’s comments were described by the university as “disturbing and defamatory.”

Superintendent Tom Horne described Cardona’s recent threat as “unworthy of his position.”

“In the U.S., anyone accused of wrongdoing is presumed innocent and entitled to their day in court,” Horne wrote in his letter. “For a Cabinet-level official, one who is sworn to uphold the U.S. Constitution, your threat against GCU is contrary to those constitutional guarantees and unworthy of your position.”

In his testimony to Congress, Cardona repeated accusations leveled against GCU by the U.S. Department of Education as justification for shutting down the school. In his letter, Horne reminds the Secretary that the federal government has so far failed to provide GCU with evidence to support the allegations and Cardona’s refusal to meet with GCU leadership is unreasonable.

Horne reiterated his support for the school, noting that GCU is a “major ally of my effort to raise academics in Arizona schools, and any harm you do to them would do harm to my goal of academic excellence. We also have a severe teacher shortage in Arizona and the elimination of GCU would be a severe blow.”

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