What do all Ivy League schools have in common (besides conference and east coast locations)? Well, it seems that tens of billions of American tax dollars are rolling into them frequently. The tax dollar sum received by these education institutions is so high it totals more than the tuition received from undergraduate students!
The nonprofit, Open the Book recently released these stunning numbers and the public is not happy. According to Fox News, “The study says another federal perk — the schools pay no tax on investment gains on their endowment — a tax break is estimated at $9.6 billion over the six years of the study.”
Princeton, criticized the reported numbers, stating the study was flawed because it doesn’t take into account school investments. Furthermore, a representative from Yale University implied that the contributions are not a financial burden on tax payers, but instead an economic benefit.
Still, if colleges like the Ivy Leagues are receiving so much financial support from alumni, grad and undergrad students, what is the need for federal funding?
According to Fox News, “With continued donations at the present rate, the money could provide free tuition to the entire student body in perpetuity. Without new donations, the endowment could provide a full-ride scholarship for all Ivy League undergraduate students for 51 years.” If this is the case, the federal dollars scheduled to go to Ivy League schools could be given to institutions that actually need them, such as HBCUs, state colleges, or other schools in need. If you are receiving billions from tax payers and still receive federal funding in large amounts then the federal school needs to be reviewed.
Jaymie and I will revisit this topic on Sunday, April 2 during our weekly livestream so please follow us for more on this topic.
The list of Ivy League schools consist of the following (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University)
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/03/29/critics-to-ivy-leagues-taxpayer-gravy-train-needs-to-end.html