Analysis Tracks Koch Brothers’ Financial Backing of Higher Education

A new analysis from the Center for Public Integrity details how charitable foundations controlled by the brothers Charles and David Koch have poured money into colleges and universities. The center’s analysis of federal tax filings found that two private Koch charitable foundations contributed more than $12.7-million to colleges in 2012, spreading the money among 163 American institutions.

The center’s analysis said that the Koch-connected foundations’ recent giving to higher education far outpaced that of foundations controlled by other major political donors. The top beneficiary of Koch-related money in 2012 was George Mason University, which received $8.49-million, the analysis said. Some of that money supported George Mason’s free-market-oriented Mercatus Center, which convenes workshops of experts to review scholarly manuscripts face to face.

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• Source: Publicintegrity

George Mason University donors “respect our academic freedom and understand they can’t influence what we do,” university spokesman Michael Sandler said. “Our president [Angel Cabrera] has made clear that if any donor ever threatened our academic freedom, we wouldn’t take their money.”

Read more at: www.publicintegrity.org