The War Against Harvard

The war being raged by the United States of America against Harvard University is, at least in part, a war against elitism, liberalism, and entitlement. Notwithstanding the University’s multibillion dollar endowment, there is much whining among the intelligentsia that the money given to Harvard for its endowment may be restricted.  One thing we know for sure is that the money is not used to reduce tuition payments at Harvard which increase by double the rate of inflation each year.

According to some sources, in 2020 alone, federal grant money awarded to colleges and universities totaled $36.4 billion. The National Institute of Health awarded $41 billion in 2018, with more than half of that going towards federal grants. The National Science Foundation also awarded $11.2 billion to universities.

Where does all of that money go, and who is in charge of finding out whether the money is well spent and produces tangible results? The answer is nobody. The Department of Education and the federal agencies which hand out the money are supposed to be in charge of safeguarding the taxpayers’ hard-earned money and making sure that it is utilized in a way which can be justified and produces results in the public interest.

Anyone who has worked in the nonprofit world knows that colleges, universities, and other nonprofits have specialized employees whose job it is to apply for and obtain grants. There are people who spend their whole career getting money for their nonprofit institutions. They also know how to write grant proposals to get money from private entities, the states, and even foreign donors.

Most colleges today have impressive bricks and mortar. The buildings are large, magnificent, and sometimes empty. Throughout the United States, colleges and universities have new and upgraded dormitories, phenomenal gymnasiums, swimming pools, and world class athletic teams.

How does all of the money spent on universities and colleges enhance our national interest? The information justifying the amount of grant money that goes to colleges and universities is sparse indeed. We are told that all of the public money that goes to our schools must be doing good because we spend. The thinking goes that the more we spend the better the results must be. As we all know, that is not necessarily true.

In spite of increasing expenditures on education at every level, the United States seems to be losing the intelligentsia race to other countries. Our students are motivated to take the easiest possible courses, to get their education as quickly as possible, and to enter the real world prepared not to think but rather to make money as quickly as possible.

It is hard to shed crocodile tears for places like Harvard, Columbia, and the numerous other universities and colleges, several of which I attended. The emphasis on critical thinking, analysis, and obtaining a knowledge base has all but disappeared in the college environment. Rather, the practicalities of education have given way to the politics of those in power. Those in positions of governmental influence seek clones for their priorities, some of which are personal, and others of which may actually overlap with the public interest.

Harvard, Columbia, and other colleges and universities under attack from the current Administration are asserting their “right” to receive money from the federal government and to map out a policy based upon their sociological choices. It is no accident that most colleges and universities in the United States turn out graduates who are remarkably similar in their thinking. Those who teach in the American college and university system by and large have been inculcated with the same political and economic values. That template which runs America today is based upon values and virtues of a government hewed in the wake of the Great Depression. The dream of Franklin Roosevelt and his followers has been realized.  The social welfare state has grown into a monster far beyond what its creators intended.

Most of the money that is used to indoctrinate our youth is printed without regard to whether it can be supported by the tax system. We utilize debt to educate and train the generations in the philosophy that more government, higher expenditures, and less revenue is a value to be encouraged.

What would happen if we imagined an American college and university system like that which existed after World War II? The buildings would not be as fancy. The dormitories would not be as impressive, and the salaries of those who teach in the august institutions may be more modest. One of my close friends who is a college professor teaches one seminar a semester, one day a week, and is paid a full salary.  He is a great guy, and I love him dearly, however, no one I know can replicate the deal that he has. The universities justify excesses based upon the need to have impressive names who will attract the best students. Those same universities then turn around and offer places to students based upon preferred race, color, creed, and gender, not necessarily the students who are most entitled by virtue of their hard work, values, and dedication.

This is not to say that all grants and monies which flow to the American educational institution go to waste. Without question, there are many scientific and medical developments which have emerged from our university system based upon incubator money provided by the government. The problem is, however, that colleges and universities have come to depend on these monies for the very existence and have developed some pretty useless and ridiculous programs and projects to suck dry the federal government, their donors, and other nonprofits.

Without question, there needs to be a principled, well thought out approach to how much money the federal and state governments are going to pay to educational institutions at every level, how that money is going to be utilized, and what real needs are being fulfilled by the infusion of cash. We do not have a significant and robust system today for understanding where educational money goes, how much good it does, and whether it is funding political views as opposed to an enhanced knowledge base of the students who attend higher educational institutions in America.

The problem faced by colleges and universities today is not much different than faced by schools at every level. Lots of money has been poured into an educational system that awards tenure, which is lifetime employment, to those who may not necessarily deserve it. The billions of dollars that go to our American colleges and universities rarely trickle down to the first four years of education which is what most college students go to school for.

As a great statesman once said about a foreign leader, which also applies to Donald Trump, “The man never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” The Trump approach to Harvard is largely justified, but so unctuous is his approach, that the battle will be about Trump picking on Harvard, not whether Harvard should receive the billions of dollars it does while sitting on an astronomical endowment. Real conversation must be about how much money can we afford to spend in the United States on higher education, and how useful are those expenditures or do they merely churn out more students who think as the ruling class would prefer?