I just read in the May 19 Christian Science Monitor that a Massachusetts legislator proposes a 2.5 percent tax on college endowments over $1 billion. The Commonwealth State has nine such institutions including Harvard, MIT, Williams, Boston College, Amherst, Wellesley, Tufts, Smith and Boston University; all of them are among the most selective schools in the United States.

State representative Paul Kujowski, sponsor of the endowment tax legislation believes these institutions have accumulated an exorbitant amount of wealth while retaining their non-profit status. I can believe that Representative Kujowski did the math, and found that Harvard alone would pay $850 million on $34 billion of their endowment and MIT $250 million on their $10 billion; a smart politician knows a cash cow when he sees one.

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