Former President Donald Trump ’s running-mate, J.D. Vance , gave a speech in the fall of 2021 titled, “The Universities are the Enemy.” A radical sentiment? Hardly. According to the latest polling, more than two-thirds of Republicans believe that higher education has a negative effect on our country. (And that polling was taken before college presidents decided to indulge the tantrums of antisemitic, pro-Hamas glampers.)
Vance’s attack on universities went far beyond the stock conservative complaints about higher education . For decades, conservatives have lamented that universities are mired in nihilism, that they’re too expensive, or that they don’t effectively equip graduates for the workforce. Vance, however, offered a regime-level critique: rather than transmit wisdom and knowledge, he said, universities are developing and disseminating deceit and lies. And they do so to prop up an oppressive and unjust power structure that benefits cosmopolitan elites at the expense of everyday Americans.
So, what exactly would a Trump-Vance administration do on higher education?
Vance has sponsored legislation that would dismantle the Left’s diversity, equity, and inclusion ( DEI ) agenda in the federal government. If Republicans win the House and Senate, it’s easy to imagine such legislation passing and being extended to institutions of higher education. Vance has also proposed establishing a special inspector in the Department of Education to monitor for racial discrimination in college admissions, a measure also easy to imagine being passed.
Neither policy, however, would necessarily require a new law to implement. A properly staffed Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education could issue a slew of compliance review investigations signaling an intent to defund colleges that maintain DEI administrative positions and continue to pursue anti-white and anti-Asian admissions policies.
Vance has also proposed raising the tax on investment income from 1.4 to 35% for universities with endowments of more than $10 billion dollars. Trump recently proposed an even more aggressive measure. In his Agenda47, Trump proposed a law that would monitor universities for civil rights violations and issue penalties of up to the entire endowment.
Forced to lobby against a bill that would provide the Trump administration with the power to literally seize their endowment and destroy their institutions at will, it’s hard to imagine the Ivy League could also stave off an effort to tax their income at the level that everyday Americans pay.
The spirit of seizing the endowments may call to mind Henry VIII’s tack toward the Catholic Church. But Henry did not merely take the church’s money — he put his own guys in power over what remained. And this is potentially the most radical and consequential reform on offer — one that may not even require Congress to act.
In a yet largely uncommented-on video for his Agenda47, Trump promised to fire the existing college accreditors and replace them with new accreditors with new priorities. Firing existing accreditors would likely require new statute, but new accreditors could be approved with administrative skill.
Trump said these new accreditors could, in theory, mandate that colleges administer entrance and exit exams. This measure would give the lie to the notion that American universities build significant knowledge or skills, dealing an immeasurable blow to their prestige.
Trump also noted that the new accreditors could dismantle DEI, rein in administrative bloat, and force colleges to offer accelerated and low-cost tracks.
And new accreditors could do even more than all that. Accreditation acts as a cartel by preventing new institutions from receiving federal funding. They make it all but impossible for new universities to be established and prevent federal student aid from flowing to educational institutions outside of the traditional university mold that effectively prepare students for colleges and careers.
In his speech against the universities, Vance declared that it was unconscionable that America has set up a system whereby we tell our citizens that they have to spend four years of their life, go deep into debt, and be taught to hate our country in order to punch their ticket into the middle class .
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By blowing up the accreditation system and letting federal aid flow to non-college postsecondary institutions, the Trump-Vance administration could create a system that helps every American finance an education that provides the skills necessary to live a productive life.
This plan would bring untold wailing and gnashing of teeth from college professors and presidents. It would also make America a better and more just country.
Max Eden is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
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