A bill in Massachusetts seeks to tax rich colleges that favor families of alumni and donors in admissions policies — namely Harvard University — and give the money to poorer community colleges.
The legislation targets Harvard, Williams College and a half-dozen other schools that use preferences for students whose parents attended the college, called legacies, and meet a threshold of current endowment value per student. Cambridge-based Harvard, the richest U.S. college with a $50.1 billion endowment, would be assessed an estimated $103 million a year, the largest fee, according to sponsors.
The measure is another salvo in the attack on the admission policies of universities. Last week, the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court effectively shut down race-based affirmative action. Then on Monday Harvard was accused by minority groups of violating federal law by giving preferential treatment in the admissions process to children of alumni and wealthy donors.
