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Congressman to propose mandating endowment spending
Published: Friday, October 10th, 2008
As the economic downturn has hit both families and universities hard, Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) announced earlier this week that he would introduce a bill that could change the financial balance between students and their educational institutions.
The bill, which ...
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I find these points a little interesting:
- Welch said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian. “My major goal is to call upon our university leaders to be aggressive in managing cost...
* I wonder what his goal is for the federal government itself.
- Welch also questioned the $54 billion tax deduction that educational institutions receive every year from the federal government.
* How much are we spending in Iraq a month? How much is being spent on the financial industry? Maybe education is not that important after all.
- One who supported the proposal, however, was Lynne Munson, an adjunct fellow at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) who testified before the Senate Finance Committee in September 2007.
In addition to a spending rule, she said at the roundtable, government should provide guidance on how to use endowments.
* Wow! Maybe the government should provide guidance on emergency management and financial industry oversight. No need to worry. The government will guide us all.
Let's force universities to start spending their endowments at the exact moment when they're losing value!
George Patsourakos
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) plans to introduce a bill in Congress that would require universities to spend at least 5 percent of their endowments each year. I cannot see Congress passing such a law. A university needs the freedom to use its endowment as it desires; Congress has no right to tell a university how it should spend its endowment!