University Endowments in the Spotlight: Endowment Tax; Continuing Criticisms

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that “Endowment Tax on Wealthiest Universities Netted a Fraction of Predictions in 2021” (subscription required). The story came in the wake of continuing criticisms of university endowments from the across the political spectrum. For example, Turning Point USA recently called Harvard’s endowment a “$54 billion hedge fund,” a characterization disputed by USA Today in “Fact check: Harvard’s endowment is taxed, has limitations on spending“. And an opinion piece in the Boston Globe was titled “How the richest university endowments exacerbate inequality“, while another opinion piece in Politico was titled “What Trump Gets Right about Harvard. Rich schools don’t pay taxes. What has America gotten in return?“

Lloyd Mayer