NTF issue paper: president67.doc. 7-20.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM ISSUE PAPER:
PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEKS TO DEFUND RADICAL COLLEGES.
BACKGROUND. American city neighborhoods looted and burned by organized rioters. Many of these riots led by young radicals indoctrinated by their union high school teachers and Marxist college professors. Students thoroughly propagandized, their mentors loose them on unsuspecting and unprepared municipalities and campuses. Finally, we have a president who has the courage and will power to defund the hotbeds of these leftist mobs. President Trump and conservatives have accused universities of suppressing free speech toward students, staff, and visitors who do not comply with leftwing ideology. The federal government contributes a significant slice of higher education funding. In 2017, almost 4,300 degree-generating higher education institutions received $74.8 billion in federal funds.
TRUMP TAKES ACTION. President Trump blamed colleges for the riots nationwide that see rioters drag down statues honoring historical leaders. Without specifically naming institutions, he ordered the Treasury Dept. to re-examine the tax- exempt status of universities and colleges that offer radical indoctrination to students instead of solid educations. He tweeted, “Therefore, I am telling the Treasury Department to re-examine their Tax-Exempt Status and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!” Addressing a crowd at Mount Rushmore on July 4th, Trump declared that “our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that they were villains.” He blamed violence in cities with Democrat leaders on “indoctrination and bias in education, journalism and other cultural institutions.” He decried teaching students far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance. Trump frequently has argued that U.S. universities (like in NE) are centers of leftism that stifle conservative ideas and free speech. In 2019, he issued an executive order reminding colleges to ensure free speech on campuses or lose federal research funding, after a conservative activist underwent a brutal assault on the Berkeley U. campus. “We will not stand idly by to allow public institutions to violate their students’ constitutional rights,” Trump said, “If a college or university doesn’t allow you to speak, we will not give them money. It’s very simple.” His order directed federal agencies to ensure that a college or university receiving research grants agree to promote free inquiry and to follow federal rules and regulations supporting free speech. Trump condemned campus restriction of free thought, imposition of leftist conformity, and muzzling of young conservatives.
SOLID REASONING. University departments, particularly in the humanities, annually churn out political radicals, graduates determined to transform the laws, politics, and economy of the U.S. They leave their ivory towers with degrees in gender studies, political science, history, and literature, thoroughly indoctrinated in Marxism, socialism, and libertinism. Some join the government and corporations. Taught to despise traditional American values, that family life is evil, our culture abhorrent, our country racist and sexist, our history filled with oppression and bloodshed, these young people instill a virus in our national politics. The professors and administrators who infuse such ideas in their students claim the right to do so because of academic freedom, yet they shun and harass colleagues who refuse to march in lockstep with their views, suppress them, and sometimes force them to leave their profession and the campus. On some campuses, teachers, administrators, and radical students pounce on anyone who deviates from the leftist line, leaving others silenced, fearful of similar reprisals. Meanwhile, these institutions graduate students who, having paid enormous sums for tuition, room and board, and various fees, never have read the U.S. Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, dunces who studied history without reading one book praising our nation and totally ignorant about capitalism. The language they use, the Marxist slogans and demands for “social justice,” certainly assures us that many rioters are graduates of such programs. A 2018 National Academy of Sciences study found that Democrat professors outnumber their GOP colleagues on campus 10-1 or 13-1 if military colleges not counted. College faculties donate mostly to Dem politicians and leftist causes. Conservatives for a long time have criticized leftist indoctrination in public schools and universities, accusing them of leaning too far Left. College curricula also emphasize and reward leftwing ideas, and faculty members are overwhelmingly left-wing and liberal. Fox News host Laura Ingraham said that liberals want schools to indoctrinate students, with a goal under a Biden administration to turn our kids into hard-core activists by completely altering the curriculum leftward. Every subject, every extracurricular activity perverted to turn our kids into mini Ilhan Omars. The main university mission should prepare students for living as citizens in a free society, but while universities receive billions from taxpayers, many are hostile to the 1st Amendment. Disguising speech codes and safe spaces, universities have restricted free speech and imposed total leftist conformity. Many have become epicenters of riotous activity aimed against the Trump Administration and its allies. Canceling or drowning out conservative speakers is the norm. Data from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education documents conservative speakers targeted for “dis-invitation” from campus. The result of such education results in Black Lives Matter riots, where graduates of universities are among rioters attacking police officers and dragging down statues. A study by the Pew Research Center in 2018 found that 32% of Americans had little or no confidence that college/university professors motivated by the best interest of the public. Another Pew survey that year found 61% of respondents believe higher education headed in the wrong direction. A 2018 survey by WGBH News in Boston found that 59% of respondents agreed that colleges and universities lean too ideologically Left.
A WINNING PROPOSAL. Most U.S. public and private universities and colleges and trade schools are tax-exempt because of their educational purposes or because they are part of a state government. Most qualify as 501©(3) organizations and pay no corporate income tax. Previous announcements from the IRS include 6 kinds of activities that may jeopardize a non-profit tax-exempt status, including political activity, lobbying, and conducting activities outside the organization stated purpose. Despite liberal declarations that the Treasury Dept. cannot revoke college tax-exempt status, the IRS notes, “Advocacy of a particular position or viewpoint may be educational if there is a sufficiently full and fair exposition of pertinent facts to permit an individual or the public to form an independent opinion or conclusion. The mere presentation of unsupported opinion isn’t educational.” The method used by a tax-exempt institution might not appear educational if “[t]he presentation of viewpoints unsupported by facts is a significant part of the organization’s communications” or if “[t]he facts that purport to support the viewpoint are distorted.” The IRS also would not consider a program educational if “[t]he organization’s presentations make substantial use of inflammatory and disparaging terms and express conclusions more on the basis of emotion than of objective evaluations.” The Treasury Department could make changes through regulations, such as the Unrelated Business Income Tax, which pertains to profits earned through a part of the school that is not substantially related to the non-profit or educational part of the university. Universities also rely on federal research grants, so they risk their emergency coronavirus response funds, which the Administration may stop.
SUPPORTERS. Education Sec. Betsy De Vos declared that collegians should become empowered to pursue truth through the free exchange of all ideas, especially ideas with which they may disagree. Free inquiry is an essential feature of our democracy, and she praised the President for his continued support for American students. Conservative college student groups also praised the Trump initiative for offering them relief. Conservative religious colleges like Liberty U. praised the initiative. Conservative Sen. Mike Lee (UT.) wants to defund colleges and universities that foster anti-American sentiment. “The mob hates America on America’s dime,” Lee said in a speech in the U.S. Senate, “It’s time to cut off their allowance.” He became motivated by the recent revelation that, while numerous urban demonstrations launched in the name of the Black Lives Matter movement, arrest reports indicate much of associated violence perpetrated by white college radicals. Lee attempted to introduce a Senate resolution condemning this mob violence, a motion blocked by Socialist Democrats. He believes the roots of the urban unrest stem from colleges and universities that punish free speech and discriminate against conservative and religious students. Those institutions, Lee added, have created a privileged, self-absorbed, crime syndicate with participation trophy graduate degrees, trying to find meaning in their wasted lives by destroying traditions that other Americans have spent honest, productive lives building.
OPPONENTS. The ACLU opposes the initiative, naturally. This leftist group never stands up for conservative causes or individuals. A College Fix poll of 1,500 college students nationwide discovered that 61% of Democrat college students responded that rioting and looting are legitimate forms of protest against racial discrimination and police brutality in America today.
TAKE ACTION NOW. Remove college snouts from the federal trough. Obvious is that many colleges lack even a thin veneer of political balance. If conservatives shouted liberal speakers off the stage at universities, the outcry would appear tremendous on campuses and in the media. Cutting off federal funds for institutions that foment radicalism and muzzle conservative thought would persuade these institutions to spend their federal dollars on basic curriculum and staff unpolluted by leftist stringency. Contact your congressman and 2 senators to support this Trump initiative, using the text above. Email netaxpayers@gmail.com for congressional contact information and to join our NTF President Watch Project.
Research, documentation, and analysis for this issue paper done by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by other groups in the NE Conservative Coalition Network. 7-20. C
NTF ISSUE PAPER: PRESIDENT TRUMP SEEKS TO DEFUND RADICAL COLLEGES
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