Abigail Feder-Kane (proudly over-educated)

Congratulations to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris! I’m so excited for my daughter! Anything is possible but it’s different when you see it!

The federal government doesn’t ‘give’ money to Harvard. The $2.2 billion in frozen payments isn’t for Harvard sophomores’ tuition or library books. The US government is buying services from Harvard: scientific & medical research & development. These aren’t ‘woke donations.’ They are contracts. Proposed, reviewed, awarded, with metrics and deadlines and standards of performance. Harvard is a government contractor in that sense — lab by lab, scientist by scientist — just the way any other company is a contractor. That’s true of Columbia’s $400 million in ‘frozen’ contracts — and all the rest. R1 research universities do crucial research the federal government can’t do itself, but that we as a nation have decided we need done. Mission driven. Pioneering. Essential. They can’t be done — as Sean Hannity just suggested — at community colleges & vocational schools. That’s not what the $2.2 billion is being spent on. …You could Google it. Of course.