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Higher Education Is the Right’s Latest Target in Its War on Public Goods [1]

['Colleen Scerpella', 'Colleen Scerpella Is A Research Assistant With The Center For Media', 'Democracy. Her Previous Research Experiences Centered Around Political Violence', 'Right-Wing Extremism', 'Humanitarian Coordination. She Graduated Boston College In With A Bachelor S Degree In Political Science', 'International Studies.']

Date: 2024-07-07 11:51:02+00:00

A recent white paper by Isaac Kamola, director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, details the ongoing culture-war backlash against higher education in America, largely in response to the grassroots activism of Black Lives Matter in 2020 and increasing LGBTQ+ visibility.

More than 150 bills seeking to undermine academic freedom and intervene in university governance were introduced in state legislatures across the country during 2021-2023. While these bills are typically interpreted as an “organic” consequence of increasing polarization among Americans, the current wave of legislation targeting higher education is a coordinated effort between wealthy elites, a network of right-wing and libertarian think tanks, and Republican politicians at the state level.

The paper published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) identifies 11 right-wing and libertarian think tanks responsible for manufacturing the cultural backlash against both K-12 and higher education. A steady stream of papers, op-eds, talking points, public events, and media appearances emanating from these groups have conveyed a false impression of intellectual legitimacy behind their arguments, which conservatives have leveraged for political capital. As a result, the inflammatory narrative that all college and university faculty are “liberal,” biased, “woke,” socialist or Marxist, and hostile to free speech and conservative values has taken hold in the mainstream.

The catalyst for the backlash against educational institutions and the accompanying wave of legislation can be traced back to an executive order signed by former President Trump in September 2020 as well as to the right-wing operative who set it into motion.

Unsurprisingly, the think tanks behind these attacks are prominent, influential, and well-connected operatives in the right-wing ecosphere. Seven of the 11 are members of the State Policy Network (SPN), a web of 167 far-right nonprofit organizations in 48 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom. SPN members play an integral role in ensuring the passage of legislation in state houses by providing academic legitimacy when called on to testify at hearings, producing “studies” or model legislation, and attracting media attention.

In addition, 8 of the 11 highlighted think tanks sit on the advisory board of Project 2025, a series of policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation outlining the sweeping authoritarian and Christian nationalist reforms conservatives expect to see if former President Donald Trump is reelected this year. While proposals promising to severely curtail reproductive rights and environmental protections have received the majority of public scrutiny, the 900+-page document also outlines a plan to radically alter how America’s educational system is funded and administered. Proposals include dramatically cutting federal funding for education, “rejecting gender ideology and critical race theory,” weakening accreditation standards, ending student loan forgiveness, strictly focusing higher education on job training and economic growth, and expanding “parental rights” and school choice, among other reform measures.

AAUP also identifies the top 25 donors to the 11 think tanks and SPN between 2020 and 2022, which include prominent right-wing 501(c)(3) nonprofits like the Roe Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Searle Freedom Trust, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, Leonard Leo’s 85 Fund, the Walton Family Foundation, Stand Together Fellowships (formerly the Charles Koch Institute), the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, the Bradley Impact Fund, and the John William Pope Foundation.

However, a majority of funding for SPN and the think tanks comes from donor-advised funds, which means that the origin of the funds—the actual donor—is completely obscured. DonorsTrust, the preferred donor-advised funding conduit of right-wing billionaire families, is by far the biggest donor. Between 2020 and 2022, it contributed more than $37 million to 10 of the 11 think tanks and SPN. Other donor-advised funds in the top 25 list include the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund, the National Christian Charitable Foundation, the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program, the New Venture Fund, the Servant Foundation, and the Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust.

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[1] Url: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/right-s-war-on-higher-education

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