As President Trump cracks down on fraud at universities, undisclosed foreign funding, controversial research funding, and tax-exemption statutes in prominent U.S. colleges, a recent report shows some startling information about California colleges and federal funding.
Since entering his second term in office, President Trump has been cracking down on colleges and how money is spent. According to Axios, in March, President Trump had vowed to stop federal funding to schools and universities that allowed illegal protests by Hamas sympathizers.
In April, President Trump signed an executive order called “Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities,” which required American universities to be transparent about how they accept foreign donations and the purpose of the funding. According to the Daily Caller, the investigation revealed that nine schools failed to report $6.5 billion in foreign funds.
Now, California colleges are in the spotlight, as CalMatters released a jarring report showing that California state colleges have handed millions of dollars in federal funding to fake students.
According to Breitbart, artificial intelligence has been carrying out a sophisticated financial aid fraud scheme, mostly in virtual classes, likely due to the high acceptance rates. Scammers are relying on artificial intelligence like ChatGPT to pose as students, causing actual students to miss out on enrollment.
CalMatters reported that in 2021, the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office reported that around 20 percent of college applicants were likely fake, and in January 2024, this figure rose to 25 percent.
In the report, Breitbart revealed that fake students received more than $5 million from the federal government and $1.5 million from the state, according to reports from September 2021 through December 2023. These numbers have climbed in the past 12 months, with $10 million in federal funds and $3 million doled out to fake students. This year, schools have given out $3 million in federal aid and $700,000 in state funds.
As President Trump continues to push for new administration funding disclosure requirements and tax exemptions at universities, his tough-on-fraud agenda is clearly needed to protect how federal funds are spent.
