I last wrote about the pending ‘sequester’ and what a terrible idea it is for the American people… Today, one silver lining, or a scary fact about government spending you probably didn’t know:
Federal support for scientific research goes a huge way toward funding today’s mega-universities, colleges, and medical schools. That funding supports all sorts of good things — pure and applied science. What few realize, however, is that the schools themselves receive a ‘top-off’ or premium on every dollar of federal research aid they receive.
In other words, a scientist who receives $100,000 for her research actually brings something on the order of $160,000 to her university. The extra money is ostensibly allocated to keep the lights on, pay the janitors, etc… all the stuff those same schools say they pay for with tuition. Universities call these ‘indirect costs,’ though they’re really just hidden subsidies from government to tax-exempt non-profit corporations. (And that’s not even touching the fact that megaliths like Harvard U. pay nothing in corporate taxes — despite making billions in tuition, donations, and federal grants.)
My point is not to knock science but to question some of the high-handed preaching university presidents are doing about the dangers of the sequester… Sure, it hurts they’re bottom line. Why don’t they try being honest about what that bottom line really represents. You and I are not only paying for cutting edge scientific research — we’re subsidizing their university’s maintenance costs, payroll, fancy new gymnasia, etc… Remember that next time you watch an NCAA game.
Tuition-paying students and parents should be truly outraged. For once, the GOP has reason to question the bill for federal research. If a grant isn’t really a grant but funding-plus-indirect-costs, we should question what the funding is for in the first place. You’d really turn off the lights on that federally-funded researcher??? I’m talking to you, over-paid university president…
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