As someone growing ever-more-aware of the cost of an undergraduate education at a high-class liberal arts school, this article struck home. [1]
I honestly feel less outraged by these top schools maintaining massive endowment funds of cash, than that they do so (or grow them) based on oodles of tax breaks from the government for both themselves and their donors. I’m not big on mandating institutional behavior and investments as some of the legislative actions describe, but tying some of those tax breaks to public policy-worthy behaviors doesn’t seem beyond the pale.
That said, I do worry a bit that upset from both sides of the aisle about the problem, though, could spill into more generalized critique of and disdain for higher education as a whole. We’re in a populist era where “elite” has become not just a dirty word but something to be actively stomped on [2]. That’s troubling, too.
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[1] +Kay Hill isn’t planning on attending any of the schools mentioned here, but the small liberal arts schools she is focused in on aren’t hurting for money at the moment, either, whereas I anticipate I, as a college-paying dad, will be soon.
[2] Or a word to be directed at institutions that some of those in power don’t care for, deflecting from those elite powerful themselves. But I digress.
The Bipartisan Quest for College-Endowment Reform – The Atlantic
Liberals and conservatives alike are taking action against inequalities in higher-education finances.
