Case for redirecting resources from Ivy league Schools

I was recently asked what I thought about Trump’s proposal to take grant money from Harvard and give the funds to trade schools. My mind drifted back to around 20 years age when on a visit to New York my son and I went to a Yankee game. I asked him if he was a fan of the Yankees. His response was “rooting for the Yankees is a bit like rooting for Brad Pitt to get laid.”

Rooting for Harvard or any of the Ivy league institution to get grant money is a bit like rooting for Brad Pitt to get laid.

I don’t accept the premise that advanced scientific research projects have to be located at top universities. A decision to spread the wealth, to allocate research money from Harvard and other top schools to schools in the heartland will lead researchers to migrate to other schools and will lead to more opportunities for more students.

Research projects are important for the quality of universities and for the future technology of the country. I am NOT advocating for the reduction in the budget for scientific research. I am arguing against the concentration of research in a relatively few elite institutions. I am claiming that there are large economic benefits and large increases in opportunities for students by restricting the amount of resources earmarked to elite schools, earmarking more grant money to other institutions and creating tax incentives for donors to diversify their gifts.

Harvard and other Ivy league schools have a very low acceptance rate. The admission process at Harvard and other elite schools is arbitrary and capricious. Many of the people who can’t get into Harvard are more talented than the people accepted. It is much harder for an Asian applicant with a scientific or computer background to get into an elite school than other less qualified applicants with a different ethnic background. Consider the case of the applicant rejected by 16 top schools but eventually hired by Google for a position that usually requires an advanced degree.

The decision to relocate interesting research projects from the elite schools cause some researchers to move to the less elite schools. Many of these researcher will become faculty or adjunct faculty at their new institution leading to improved academic offerings and more opportunities for highly qualified people who are currently getting rejected by the elite institutions.

The tax bill recently passed by the House of Representatives contains a provision imposing a 21 percent tax on college endowments where the endowment is $2.0 million per student. Voting against this amendment is like rooting for Brad Pitt to get laid.

The new tax, like the diversion of grants, is both good politics and good economics. Enrollment at many college towns has gone from boom to bust and a change in tax rules that causes investors to diversify their donations could help colleges in need and stimulate local economic growth Believe me Harvard and the Cambridge area will do okay even if some grant money and tax breaks are diverted to institutions in the heartland that need the resources.