The Trump administration turned the screws a little harder on Harvard University when Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a letter to the school, informing them that until they institute reforms, they will receive no more federal grants.
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McMahon let Harvard President Alan Garber have it with both barrels.
“Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right,” she wrote. “Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students, Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law. Where do many of these ‘students’ come from, who are they, how do they get into Harvard, or even into our country – and why is there so much HATE? These are questions that must be answered, among many more, but the biggest question of all is, why will Harvard not give straightforward answers to the American public?”
I doubt very much that anyone has ever spoken to a Harvard president so directly or forcefully. It’s long overdue.
Last month, the Trump administration canceled $2.2 billion in federal grants.
“In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor,” McMahon’s letter says. She added that the university “has made a mockery of this country’s higher education system.”
For their part, Harvard believes the billions of taxpayer dollars sent to them over the years are owed to them for their superior position in the higher education firmament.
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The demands “would impose unprecedented and improper control” on the school and “would have chilling implications for higher education,” a Harvard spokesperson said in a statement.
“Unprecedented control,” yes. Is it “improper”? The federal funds Harvard receives come almost exclusively from taxpayers who didn’t attend Harvard, whose children will never attend Harvard, and who wouldn’t want them to attend Harvard in the first place. Is it really too much to ask that Harvard live up to its own code and its own standards?
McMahon slammed the school for adopting an “embarrassing” remedial math program for undergraduates, questioning why a school that’s so difficult to get admitted to has to teach low-level mathematics.
She called Harvard out for being embroiled in plagiarism scandals and lambasted the school for allowing Harvard University and the Harvard Law Review to engage in “ugly racism.”
McMahon blasted Harvard for hiring former Mayors Bill de Blasio of New York City and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago to teach “leadership” at its School of Public Health.
“This is like hiring the captain of the Titanic to teach navigation to future captains of the sea,” she said.
Trump is trying to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status as another means of bringing pressure to bear on the school. But Harvard is trying to weather the storm by leaning on its thousands of prominent alumni to lobby on their behalf before Congress and the White House.
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Given that this is an administration that seems singularly unimpressed with a Harvard degree, I doubt whether those efforts will achieve anything meaningful.
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McMahon suggested that Harvard quit being a federally funded institution.
“Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution and can instead operate as a privately funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from its large base of wealthy alumni.”
Harvard has a staggering $53 billion endowment. If those research grants are so important, they might find some spare cash to fund them from their own pockets.
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