Top Universities, Which Have Allowed Antisemitism To Fester, Face Scrutiny Over Their Tax-Free Status

Why has America come to hate Harvard? Or the University of Pennsylvania? Or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Or Carnegie Mellon? Or a bunch of West Coast schools? Or fancy elite universities, in general? Why? Well, for one thing, they lack the backbone to stop antisemitism. By the way, the same could be said about the Biden White House, which set up an interagency working group on “Islamophobia” — but not one on antisemitism. Tragic. Pathetic. Awful. Let’s go back to Harvard and its president Claudine Gay. Not only did she flunk the antisemitism test posed to her by the House Republican leader, Elise Stefanik, she then tried some mealy-mouthed walking it back tactics, which will never pass the smell test. She’s also embroiled in a plagiarism scandal, where a number of experts have clearly and unambiguously pointed the finger at the Harvard president. In the academic world, plagiarism is one of the biggest no-no’s — not as big as antisemitism, but a major and presumably punishable offense. Usually, students and faculty get expelled for that. But not Ms. Gay. The Harvard Corporation has, for reasons unclear, stood behind Ms. Gay so far as president, and allowed her to retroactively whitewash her plagiarism. Then, the New York Post wrote a scathingly detailed story about how Harvard lawyers worked arduously to cover it up. Normally, in America you’d say “three strikes and you’re out” — antisemitism, plagiarism, and then the cover-up. Yet Harvard doesn’t want to admit any wrongdoing. So, for now, they’re sticking with Ms. Gay. Many people believe she got where she got, and remains where she remains, because of Harvard’s left-wing policies concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion. Not merit, mind you, but DEI. And, showing up for the first time to help a bunch of Harvard Jewish kids light the Hanukkah candles is so transparently phony that it will not change Ms. Gay’s shaky standing. Harvard’s lost some money from large donors over all this. Yet there’s an even bigger money scandal regarding all these well-endowed elite universities. And that is: they’re really permitted to run tax-free hedge funds with their endowment on the one hand, and remain recipients of massive volumes of federal spending on the other. Another hat-tip to the New York Post breaking this story. The combined endowment of Harvard, Penn, and MIT is just short of $100 billion. Any capital gains from their stock sales or interest on bonds are taxed at zero. That’s right, zero. Ordinary, run-of-the-mill wealthy people have to pay a top rate of 37 percent. The long-term capital gains for individuals have a top rate of 15 percent, the corporate tax rate is 21 percent, and dividend income is taxed at 37 percent. For Harvard and the other big shot schools, their tax rate is zero. For all income combined, these schools have a 1.4 percent tax rate. And, on top of that, just Harvard alone, besides their $2.5 billion in virtually tax-free investments, received $676 million from federal government grants, $349 million from state governments, and $1.3 billion from tuition, including federal loans and Pell grants. Professor Rich Vedder from Ohio University has estimated that government subsidies and tax breaks at Ivy League schools are more heavily subsidized than students at public institutions. This inequity, on top of their egregious left-wing social policies as well as their spiraling antisemitism, should be changed. At the very least, there should be a heavy cost imposed on these schools. Senator Vance of Ohio has an excellent idea: he recently tweeted about his bill that would tax the largest endowments at 35 percent, not 1.4 percent in order to impose significant consequences for these DEI and woke insanities. Harvard and the others may still hate America and traditional American values, but at least they’ll find that hatred to be far more costly than the free lunch they’re getting now.From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business Network.

Top Universities, Which Have Allowed Antisemitism To Fester, Face Scrutiny Over Their Tax-Free Status

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