The Biden administration announced that it will subsidize students in Lebanon to attend several universities in the country. U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power said that the U.S. government will “provide $50 million for Lebanese and refugee students living in the country to attend the American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanese American University (LAU), and Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU).”
In a USAID press release, the $50 million will be split between supporting scholarships for undergraduate students (a total of $15 million) and “partial need-based financial aid for about 3,500 students” over three years.
Apparently, USAID has provided scholarships to Lebanese and refugee students before since 2010 to the tune of $156 million. Over 1,600 students have attended college or university because of the USAID program.
The press release called the funding a reflection of “USAID’s continued commitment to empowering youth to shape Lebanon’s future.”
In a period of time where inflation is out-of-control and fears of a recession grow each day, subsidizing college-aged students abroad may not be the wisest use of taxpayer dollars.
Also, Power previously served in the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Conservatives view her suspiciously because of her involvement in unmasking the identities of U.S. citizens in intelligence reports because there were doubts that she had the authority to access this type of confidential administration. Judicial Watch noted that she “was the most active of the serial unmaskers in the Obama administration” and “made over 260 such requests” in her last year as ambassador until President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017.
