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March 31, 2025

Tom Cotton Should Go Further: An Endowment Tax Should Not Exclude Big Foundations

Pressure in Congress is rapidly growing to respond to the Left-leaning tilt of universities by increasing the excise tax on their endowments. There’s no doubt that for legislators concerned about both the quality of education and looking for a way to raise revenue without increasing tax rates, endowments such as Harvard’s $50 billion or Yale’s $40 billion…

December 17, 2024

Make America Smart Again: The Jeopardy Test for Graduation

President-elect Donald Trump has signaled his intention to try to abolish the Education Department, long considered wasteful in a nation where public education is provided locally. If he were to succeed — a long shot, to be sure — state and local education overseers would have to step up to ensure quality education. On this front, the news is not promising….

November 15, 2024

JD Vance is Right: Reduce the Power of Big Foundations to Help Charity

In his 2021 campaign for Senate, JD Vance, now vice-president-elect, minced no words in expressing his disdain for two of America’s largest private, philanthropic institutions: the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundations.   Both are, he said, “fundamentally cancers on American society but they pretend to be charities, so they benefit from preferential tax treatment.” Their endowments, he continued,…

November 10, 2024

The Risks of Nonprofit Local Journalism

The decision of Washington Post owner/Amazon founder Jeff Bezos not to allow the paper’s editorial board to endorse a presidential candidate has stirred disappointment cum outrage among the paper’s readers — some 250,000 have gone so far as to cancel their subscriptions. Bezos, with the deepest of pockets, was once viewed as the Post’s savior — now he’s the devil in…

September 25, 2024

Disconnected: The Growing Class Divide in American Civic Life

Key Points Read the PDF. Executive Summary At one time, American social and civic life was characterized by robust networks of social connections and activities. But in the years following the pandemic, which curtailed social opportunities and community activities, there are few signs of recovery. The American Social Capital Survey reveals that American civic life…

September 20, 2024

How Public Housing Fueled Boston’s Busing Riots

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the North’s worst episode of school desegregation–related racial violence: Boston’s busing riots. Mobs hurled rocks at buses filled with black students newly assigned to South Boston High School, set on the “heights” of that largely white neighborhood. At the time, and in retrospect, the violence was blamed on…

August 30, 2024

When It Comes to Declining Donations, There’s More to the Story

To the Editor: New research showing a sharp decline in giving in 2018 — the year after passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — must be tempered by a consideration of the extent of nonitemized giving, which is often difficult to capture. Rasheeda Childress’s article “Donors Likely Giving $16 Billion Less Each…

August 6, 2024

Trump’s Tax Law Diminished Incentives for Charitable Giving, But We Can Fix It

Debate over the potential renewal of the so-called Trump tax cuts of 2017 will be building as their expiration approaches next year. The focus will likely be on corporate and personal tax rates. But there’s a less-appreciated but consequential side effect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: its impact on charitable giving. Simply put,…

July 23, 2024

How the 2017 Tax Law Made Itemized Charitable Giving a Luxury Good

Key Points Read the PDF. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 included some of the most far-reaching changes to the US income tax code in a generation. In addition to reducing statutory tax rates for individuals and corporations, the law adjusted the tax base. Among its most significant changes to the individual…

May 8, 2024

Correcting for Bias; How Public Radio Can Better Serve All Americans

Good morning. Thank you Chair Griffith and Ranking Member Cator. I’m Howard Husock, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. I also have a background in public broadcasting. I was honored to serve as member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and as a documentary film producer at Boston public…