If Republicans take control of the federal government next year, they plan to launch broadsides against universities, a higher education system that has faced intense scrutiny over liberal excesses and, more recently, accusations of anti-Semitism. is eager to bring about major changes.
The outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war comes after years of heightened tensions between universities and Republicans over free speech concerns and the perception that college campuses have become political echo chambers. Afterwards, the dam appeared to have burst.
The right wing of the Republican Party has considered cracking down on universities for years, but the issue is now mainstream within the party and lawmakers are planning behind closed doors for action after the upcoming election. ing.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an establishment ally, has publicly spoken of his desire to see Congress disrupt the status quo in higher education. In a floor speech in late February, the longtime Republican leader highlighted the recent controversy over anti-Semitism on college campuses and criticized President Joe Biden's handling of higher education.
“Maybe it's time for the government to follow the lead of parents and business leaders and stop providing taxpayer subsidies to organizations that have clearly lost touch with reality,” McConnell suggested to colleagues.
Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and its aftermath, Republicans have been crafting new legislation targeting college finances. If Republicans take control of the White House and both houses of Congress in the November elections, the existing higher education system will be in for a shock.
“If we get a three-way Republican option, there will be steps to rein in universities, there's no question about that,” said Jay Green, senior education researcher at the conservative Heritage Foundation. washington examiner.
In the wake of the October 7 attack, a video showing students tearing down posters of abducted Israeli women and children from campus walls went viral on social media, prompting university professors to address the controversy surrounding Hamas. Faced with backlash for provocative comments, presidents of Ivy League organizations were forced to backpedal under intense questioning by Republicans over campus protests.
However, the aftermath of the Hamas attack is just the straw that broke the camel's back. This was announced by a senior House Republican aide. washington examiner The flurry of bills is the culmination of years of discord with universities.
“I think it's been boiling over for years about the hypocrisy of the higher education system in this country, but on October 7, especially in the aftermath, the scab certainly peeled off,” the aide said. It became obvious that something inherently wrong was going on. ”
The aide said the bigger story is that people are “getting through the pain of a formula that's been going on for too long.”
Officials said the scheme is that the university receives federal funds, collects the money from the research it conducts with that money, and establishes a large endowment “under the guise” of being a nonprofit institution.
“The whole system and our reward is that you're producing a bunch of anti-Semites. It's easy to say it's about anti-Semitism, and that's a big part of the problem. …But I think the real problem is the fiscal insanity that comes with the higher education model,” the aide said, wondering what the current model is going to be to lower tuition costs for students.
Former Congressman Tom Reed is familiar with the issues at hand. During his tenure in Congress from 2010 to 2022, the New York Republican introduced a bill that would create an excise tax on college endowments as a way to reduce tuition costs for middle-income students. This is a highly unusual proposal from Republican lawmakers to create a new tax. . The donation excise tax was included in the 2017 tax reform known as the Trump tax cut, and is an early sign of an openness to conflict with major universities.
“This has been building for 10 years,” Reed said in an interview. washington examineradded that institutions “consider themselves untouchable and have no incentive to lower the cost of college.”
Reed characterized the current state of higher education as a kind of “education-industrial complex,” which has allowed universities to rake in vast sums of money with little oversight of operating costs.
The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act imposed a 1.4% excise tax on colleges with assets of more than $500,000 per student, but Reed had a different plan in mind. He wanted to allow universities to suspend taxes as long as they had plans to reduce tuition.
Angela Morabito, spokeswoman for the Institute for the Defense of Freedom, said it had long been known that there were “serious problems” in higher education, but October 7 showed that those problems could no longer be solved. “It has become painfully clear,” he said. It will be ignored.
Morabito said another event that led to increased scrutiny of broader education was when students were forced to study from home during the pandemic. Parents are now able to scrutinize the education system more closely and have become politically involved in higher education and K-12 reform, she said.
Rep. Virgina Fox (R-N.C.), chair of the Education and Labor Committee, said the pandemic has exposed many problems for colleges and universities. She pointed out that educational institutions are charging full tuition fees for online classes without providing necessary services to students.
“I think it has led to a lot more negativity, not just from conservatives but from people across the country,” she said. washington examiner.
Another moment, Fox said, was a December 2023 hearing in which presidents of several prominent universities, including Harvard University, struggled to answer basic questions about anti-Semitism on campus. . She said they “did a terrible job of opposing anti-Semitism.”
Fox noted that the scrutiny of universities is likely to continue, and that the level of scrutiny has only increased since the endowment tax was enacted in 2017.
“There's talk now of doing more with these institutions that have a lot of money,” Fox said. “What I'm seeing is that people's eyes are wide open about college, and it's much wider than it was before the end of last year.”
One notable piece of legislation proposed is the University Endowment Accountability Act bill by Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), which would increase the sales tax on endowment net investment income for secular private colleges from 1.4% to 35%. This is the content to increase to %. Companies with assets under management of at least $10 billion.
While the $10 billion cut would affect only a small portion of the nation's hundreds of universities, the combined tax burden would be significant.
The schools affected by the Vance plan are Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, Princeton University, MIT, Penn University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, Washington University in St. Louis, Duke University, and Vanderbilt University. Together they hold assets of $270 billion.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), also a Republican, wants to raise the sales tax as a way to corner universities.
Cotton's legislative proposal, the Wake Endowment Security Tax Act, would impose a 6% excise tax on endowments at 10 universities. The tax revenue, estimated at more than $15 billion, will be used to fund Israel's war against Hamas, Ukraine's war against Russia, and U.S. efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigration.
The path Washington Republicans will take is already being mapped out at the state level. Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R-Fla.) initiative ensures that all state and federal funds “advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or participate in political or social causes.” It was prevented from being used for this purpose. Board of Education and Governor.
The University of Florida has laid off all staff related to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in recent weeks. DEI is a frequent target of Republican officials.
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As the 2024 election approaches, Republicans eager to enter the higher education system are waiting. If the Republicans end up winning big, even bigger changes could come to universities.
“Something is going to change here, and exactly how it will change will depend on the outcome of the election and whether the university can get the recurring problems under control,” said Green, the Heritage Fellow. Ta. “Change is going to happen here.”
