Education

US colleges’ billion-dollar question: is philanthropy worth the cost?

From Times Higher Education: “Among the familiar critiques of philanthropy are that wealthy donors are mostly looking for flattery and control and use their largesse to accentuate their corrosive power over society rather than to humbly relinquish some of it. That is seen as especially true when it comes to higher education: rather than helping those most in need, billionaires typically slip their strategic benefactions into the bank accounts of the academy’s elite. ‘The super wealthy in America send billions of dollars each year to the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the nation and the world – and receive large tax deductions for their efforts,’ says Robert Reich, Carmel P. Friesen’s professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and a former US Secretary of Labor. ‘The consequence is to exacerbate inequalities.’”

View the full article from Times Higher Education