President Donald Trump plans to funnel billions of dollars from Ivy League universities like Harvard, and use them to fund trade schools. According to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, he also wants Harvard to build one of its own. “The Harvard Vocational School,” Lutnick said Thursday. “That’s what America needs.”
The Trump administration has been at odds with Harvard for a while. Earlier this year, it imposed a freeze on $2.6 billion in federal research funding to Harvard University, linking the release of these funds to demands for significant changes in the university’s policies. A federal judge ruled earlier this month that this action was unconstitutional, handing the institution a significant legal victory. Several other universities have been affected by similar decisions as well, and are trying to come to financial agreements with the White House to settle charges of political bias, and to regain access to important research grants. An investment in career and technical training, something which is a priority for Trump who plans to restart U.S. manufacturing, has been seen as a possible compromise.
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Brown University agreed to spend $50 million over ten years on workforce training in its home state of Rhode Island as part of a settlement. The college will disburse the funds as grants to existing vocational programs and organizations. School administrators are still figuring out their process, and aim to land on one “in the coming weeks,” said Brian Clark, a spokesperson for Brown.
While Harvard hasn’t reached such a settlement yet, there have been talks in the recent weeks. Princeton University runs an apprenticeship program, partially funded by the Department of Energy, which offers training in more than a dozen fields including welding and cybersecurity. Harvard itself earlier this year announced a Careers in Construction program of training and apprenticeships in the Boston area.
Trump had in April, signed an executive order to “refocus young Americans on career preparation.” While he’s talked about the importance of vocational training, he doesn’t seem keen on using federal funding for it. Trump has proposed eliminating the Labor Department’s $200 million annual budget for supporting adult education at community colleges, much of which funds vocational and skills-based programs. The department has also halted its Job Corps program, effectively shutting down 99 career training centers nationwide.
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Kathleen deLaski, founder of the vocationally focused Education Design Lab and a senior adviser at Harvard’s Project on Workforce said that she and her team proposed a similar initiative over a decade ago, but it didn’t get much traction. While she doesn’t support the Trump administration’s actions against Harvard, she says, “if they are going to extract a pound of flesh from wealthy colleges, I’d rather have it earmarked for less-resourced parts of higher ed than be a tax going back to the national coffers.”
Meanwhile some analysts have pushed back against this move. “I don’t think extorting money from Ivy League institutions is any way to finance workforce development,” said Braden Goetz, senior policy adviser at the New America think tank. “If it’s publicly funded, taxpayers and policymakers have a say in how it’s used. If we’re relying on Harvard or Brown to decide how to spend it, it may not be in the best interest of the people.”