Why Is Taxpayers' Money Used to Subsidize Elite Universities?

Listen to the full episode today at 4pm wherever you get your podcasts: linktr.ee/heterodoxoutloud
Discover how Ivy League schools might be shortchanging taxpayers to the tune of billions! Today, we're peeling back the layers of an issue that hits our wallets and our values: the billion-dollar taxpayer support of Ivy League institutions.
Host John Tomasi is joined by Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of "Open the Books," an advocate for transparency in public finances. Adam brings to light a staggering reality: Over a recent five-year period, Ivy League schools amassed fortunes at the taxpayers' expense-a whopping $45 billion tab that's got some scratching their heads and policy-makers wielding the legislative pen.
Adam is not afraid to discuss how taxpayers are burdened with the cost of what seems more like a federal contractor than an educator. We discuss questions of accountability, such as whether universities should receive federal money without oversight and whether state-level standards boards could improve the management of public funds.
Join us on Heterodox Out Loud as we explore the billion-dollar taxpayer tab for Ivy League schools and its implications for the future of higher education, government oversight, and our society's appreciation for knowledge.
In This Episode:
Elite schools' heavy reliance on taxpayer funds
Proposed tax reforms for excessive university endowments
The debate over universities' federal funding accountability
Tension in bipartisan university public policy
The Rising costs and transparency in higher education
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About Adam:
Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Adam founded the transparency website, Openthebooks.com, and launched it by posting the salaries and pensions of all 1 million Illinois public employees (2011). Today, OpenTheBooks is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
In their oversight report, published in March 2017, titled Ivy League, Inc., OpenTheBooks uncovered $41 billion taxpayer subsidies, tax-breaks and federal payments into the Ivy League colleges (FY2010-2015).
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[@zatakification]

I found this discussion very, very weird indeed. When I apply for a government grant, that's my grant, not the university's. If I decide to go somewhere else, the money goes with me. What's more, the way that government money is to be spent is spelled out in the grant. It's more complicated than that, but that is the basic fact of it. So what the hell are you talking about? I thought this was meant to be an organization for professional academics, not some sort of disingenuous libertatarian punditism. The university's endowment (or lack thereof) is a competely separate issue, legally, ethically and financially. It's very hard to know what you want to happen - are you saying that if I work at Harvard (I don't) then I may no longer apply for NIH grants, but instead must apply to some sort of fund related to Harvard's endowment? What if I work at some other college that, like most, only has a small endowment? Can I apply to the NIH then? Who decides who is eligible to apply? What if I want to collaborate (many grants are shared between many institutions, sometimes in different countries)? Or change job? What does *any* of this have to do with antisemitism? Or, maybe you are saying that Harvard should be compelled to start supplying the government with money? If so, it's worth understanding that Harvard's entire endowment (50 billion) would only fund the NIH budget for a single year (45 billion), let alone total government speding on research. As time moves on, Heterodox academy gets less and less serious and sounds more and more like some cheesy right leaning media outlet. Sorry but it does. You certainly sound like people who've never had a grant, which is a condition of academic adulthood.