STATE OF THE STATE SCHOOLS
A Look at Public University Finances Reveals DEI, Foreign Influence and Radical Ideas Thrive Far Beyond the Ivy League
Following the 10/7 attacks and the ensuing upheaval on Ivy League campuses, Open the Books was on the leading edge of investigating the tax dollars spent on far-Left ideology at those elite institutions. We measured how much public cash they and Northwestern hoovered up in recent years -- $45 billion. Then we found millions flowing to those schools from the “State of Palestine,” even though no such nation is recognized by the US State Department. As further controversies erupted in the mid-Atlantic, we measured the spending on DEI at the University of Virginia and UNC-Chapel Hill.
There were so many millions spent on staff pushing DEI at these schools, and so many billions worth of federal grants for radical research, we decided to take a more exhaustive look.
While the public has become used to hearing about radical ideas in the Ivy Leagues, Open the Books investigated nearly a dozen state-run schools. Our auditors chose highly-ranked schools that represent a diverse geographic and political cross section of our nation. For every Berkeley, we also checked into a school like Ohio State, and for every Rutgers, we looked at a school like Georgia Tech.
We measured how much each school was spending on staff to push DEI; how much they were receiving in federal grants and contracts; and how much cash was coming from overseas, including adversarial nations like China, Saudi Arabia, or Qatar.
The results were stunning. For the first time, they’re gathered here in an exhaustive report.
Click the button to get your copy, and you can read the Introduction below for a better taste of what you’ll find inside!
INTRODUCTION
The brutal terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 accelerated a remarkable and ongoing realignment in the Middle East. It also had the unintended consequence of drawing back the curtain on the radical culture that has taken hold of much of American academia.
As chaos erupted on “elite” campuses like Columbia and Harvard, these institutions came under intense scrutiny they hadn’t seen in decades. Through transparency efforts from Open the Books, independent journalists, donors and even a few brave employees, it became clear these universities had been ideologically captured by left-wing radicalism. Coursework, professors and programming were promoting anti-American, neo-Marxist notions under the banner of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI).
“Parents who watched this spectacle are wondering where the $80,000 a year they pay in tuition is going, and whether the “education” their children are receiving is worth the price tag. American taxpayers who can hardly afford an Ivy League education but are equally disturbed by the moral rot they’re seeing might be even more alarmed to discover that they are personally underwriting it.”
—Adam Andrzejewski, Tablet Magazine
By following the money, it also became clear that these universities prospered more as awardees of government grants and special tax treatment than they did as straightforward educational institutions. In the cases of the Ivy Leagues, Northwestern and Stanford, our findings demonstrated they collected more in research grants each year than they did in undergraduate tuition. At the same time, their multibillion-dollar endowments ballooned with a favorable tax rate granted to them as “public charities.” Since 2017, these colleges are only subject to a 1.4 percent excessive endowments tax: not the 20 percent capital gains tax levied on wealthy Americans. Before that, the endowments weren’t taxed at all.
Those endowments grew, of course, with the help of private donations. And in many cases, those donations came from foreign entities and states; many friendly, some adversarial. Countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and China frequently were in the mix, making contributions in return for seats for their own nationals or influence over programming.
As Open the Books continued peeling back the layers of university finances, we uncovered yet another way federal dollars were propping up radicalism. The Department of Education offers Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants that are meant to support the study of lesser-known languages and regions of the globe. Centers for the study of the Middle East and languages like Arabic are counted among the recipients. The supposed public benefit of the grants is to turn out professionals who understand the geopolitical terrain of a given area, can speak the language, and can represent and advance American interests abroad.
In practice, controversial professors who’ve already made themselves at home in academia end up benefitting from these tax dollars; as they promote extreme ideas and coursework, they advance their own academic bona fides with the help of the feds. In one example, Columbia’s Dr. Joseph Massad appeared on FLAS grants applications; Massad became infamous for having written that Hamas’ attack was a “stunning victory for the Palestinian resistance.”
Four of the schools highlighted in this report are also among the top ten recipients of FLAS grants.
All of these factors have created a toxic campus environment indirectly fueled by our tax dollars, and with consequences far beyond graduation.
Students are free to choose the education they wish, of course; and as private universities, these wealthy institutions can teach what they like (within the bounds of the Constitution). But with hundreds of billions in grants flowing in and minimal tax revenue flowing back to the federal government, it raises the question: are these universities always acting in the public interest?
That question becomes even more urgent if the focus turns toward public, state-run institutions. So, Open the Books has done just that, taking a closer look at ten highly ranked public universities that represent a diverse geographic and political sampling of the United States.
I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THE FOLLOWING IS NOT THE LAW OF THE LAND.....IT IS OK TO FIND FRAUD, WASTE AND ABUSE AND REMOVE BUT WHAT IS THE FOLLOW ON TO PEVENT IT FROM REINFECTING. HOW TO INITIATE...VERY SIMPLY IMPLEMENT A '"ZERO BASED BUDGETING" PROCESS IN EACH DEPARTMENT, AGENCY, PROGRAM, OR GROUP THAT IS REQUESTING FUNDING, THAT MANDATES THAT EACH YEAR BEFORE THEY GET ONE CENT THEY MUST SHOW, BASED UPON SOLID EVIDENCE, THAT THEIR ACTIVITIES CONTRIBUTE TO THE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE OPERATIONS OF THE PART OF GOVERNMENT THEY OVERSEE. A KEY PROBLEM IS THAT MOST OFTEN NOTHING IS EVER CANCELED THEY JUST THROW MORE MONEY AT IT, A KEY STRATEGY IS TO FLATTEN THE GOVERNMENT TO ELIMINATE MULTIPLE REDUNDANT LEVELS. ALSO ELIMINATE DEI HIRING AND TENURE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES AND ELIMINATE EMPLOYEE UNIONS. IT IS WHAT SMART BUSINESS DO AND AS WHAT SMART AND RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE AND FAMILIES DO. THIS WILL BE FOUGHT AGGRESSIVELY BY THE LEFT AND ALL THOSE WHO THRIVE IN THE WASTEFUL SPENDING WHILE THEY FILL THEIR RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS OFTEN CONTRIBUTING NOTHING TO THE COUNTRY.
Re Mr. Shadbrooks comment
If they do as you ask, and all departments and committees etc. have to defend their legitimacy frequently, don't forget to factor in all the hours it will take for them, and whomever adjudicates it, to complete the 'hearings'. Whirr go the calculators and photocopiers. Bureaucracy breeds only more bureaucracy, laws breed more laws. Finally, one person's interpretation of ' earning your bread for the common good' is not the same as another's. What's good on the books may not be good in the heart or health.