The Billionaire Compact for Education

Face the Nation cited one private equity underwriter (PEU) behind Trump II's assault on higher eduction:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Professor Seidman, in terms of where the Trump administration's compact came from, there were a lot of influences. But one of them, according to the man himself, is billionaire Mark Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management. And he said he helped write the compact because "without government involvement, reform at universities will be difficult," he argues. He says there have been "government mandates" on things like "diversity, on discrimination and student discipline," so why view these at any different? 

Why is he wrong? 

JERI SEIDMAN (Professor, University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce):: We were talking about academic freedom. And I think in our ability to search for the truth in research, we also have responsibilities in the classroom that are different than you would experience in a corporate setting. And so, I read the compact differently than he does. I think the thing that I struggle with the most about the compact is the idea that it rewards loyalty as opposed to focuses on advancement of the truth. 

 As a cancer survivor, I want federal research funds to go to the universities and the professors who have the best ideas to cure cancer. That's the way to advance knowledge. And academics, that's really – we are truth seekers. The compact says, you know, truth seeking is a core foundation of institutions of higher education. And I completely agree with that portion of the compact, it's just the implementation of that truth seeking that I think we differ on.

The McIntire School of Commerce is one of the top undergraduate business schools in the country.  Professor Sidman weighed in on the recent forced resignation of President Jim Ryan. 

"...it feels like there's a couple people who are managing everything, and nobody else is really involved.”

Rowan is not alone in his quest to have the world he prizes pushed on others.  Billionaires Bill Ackman and Leon Cooperman have been rather vocal on this issue.

The billionaires bullied a relative few college students on behalf of America's 51st state.  How did that turn out?

Several Israeli nonprofits and a Holocaust scholar might point to the protestors' prescience.  Trapping innocent women and children in a war zone, where conditions for living become horrific, ensures a very predictable outcome.  

So how good are these billionaires at their day job as they seem suspect in other areas?

Two years ago Apollo CEO Marc Rowan espoused the relative safety of private credit, implying extra risk was not there.  He said not to think of it as levered credit but as investment grade debt.  

The landmines began exploding in private credit, mostly due to fraud, which these guys are supposed to detect.  Did dust from rigorous fee generation block the view through the due diligence microscope?  

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon referred to private credit blowups as cockroaches.  One investment advisor referred to private assets in retirement funds "as only asking for trouble."

The government doing what PEU billionaires want is nothing new.  Fourteen years ago they coined a term for it, "policy making billionaire."  And that's why their highly unpopular preferred "carried interest" taxation remains firmly in place.

Those with eyes to see and ears to hear can detect patterns over time.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but only a select few are entitled enough to push their opinions on whole universities.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.  History has shown us that they push their own book to exclusion of others.