Ways and Means committee to look closer at universities tax-exempt status

The Israel-Hamas conflict has gotten the entire world embroiled with anger, both with the situation and against one another. There have been protests against both Israel, and Palestine across the world, and United States, in recent weeks. That has been especially true on college campuses where tensions have boiled over to tears.

The pro-Palestinian protests though have drawn more ire from people and has now caught the eye of the House Ways and Means Committee. The chairman of the committee Jason Smith of Missouri wants to begin looking at the tax-exempt status of universities.

Political strategist Vlad Davidiuk says all this extra money has fattened up the cow but has produced no results.

They are not improving their outcomes...we are seeing lower performance rates, lower graduation rates, diminished impact of these high-cost educations," he says. "So, it certainly begs the question of why the taxpayers are funding for these things when all we get are lower returns."

The schools get to avoid federal income taxes on education-related purposes, which clearly have not been working. They then just keep this money to build fancy buildings or other things, and not impact education at all.

That becomes a problem.

"When you have a university basically becoming a multi-billion-dollar corporation...it begs the question of why they need to be tax-exempt, or why they need any federal funding at all," he says.

Davidiuk says that this kind of thing needs to come from the bottom up, rather than starting big at the national level.

"The federal government is slow to get into these issues, because they will point to the ranges...you cannot say every institution of higher learning is equal, and have a one size fits all solution," he says. "If they ever do decide to get involved, it is going to be led by what happens at the local and state level."

But, when that begins rolling, then you'll see the Feds poke their nose into the issue.

"Once we reach a critical mass there and see more local ordinances taking a hard look at these policies...you will see the federal government really take a good look at it," Davidiuk says.