Billions in Taxpayer Funds Support Colleges Amid Anti-Israel Protests, Sparking Calls for Defunding

According to a review of financial records, More than $5 billion in taxpayer dollars were given to Ivy League schools through sponsorship, grants, and contracts in fiscal year 2023, while another $2.1 billion went to other prominent schools that have recently had anti-Israel rallies.

Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell, have been the scenes of some of the most high-profile anti-Israel unrest.

Republican lawmakers in the Senate and House are calling for the removal of federal funding for schools that refuse to meaningfully address the situations on their campuses.

In fiscal year 2023, Harvard received $676.1 million, Princeton $403 million, Yale $776.8 million, Columbia $1.2 billion, Penn $955.6 million, Brown $173.7 million, Dartmouth $133 million, and Cornell $736.3 million in federal funding.

An Open the Books study revealed that the eight Ivy League schools, along with Northwestern and Stanford, received "$33 billion [worth] of federal contracts and grants" since 2018, averaging $6.6 billion annually, and an additional $12 billion in special tax treatment benefits on the growth of their endowment gains.

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The unrest on college campuses began after Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people. Students at various schools have set up encampments, calling for divestment from Israel and other demands. Some protesters have engaged in anti-Israel and antisemitic chants, and a few have even clashed with police, leading to arrests.

Legal experts argue that the students participating in these protests are violating each school's code of conduct. At Princeton, dozens of demonstrators attempted to erect a tent encampment, resulting in two arrests by university police.

The group Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest referred to the police as "pigs" on social media. UT Austin placed an anti-Israel group on interim suspension following the arrest of several students last week.

According to a review of financial records, several colleges and universities that have witnessed anti-Israel protests in recent weeks received substantial federal funding in fiscal year 2023. UC Berkeley received over $451.4 million, New York University (NYU) $805.5 million, University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) roughly $645.6 million, and George Washington University (GWU) more than $200 million.