President Donald J. Trump will endow the American Academy with the billions we will collect by taxing the large endowments of private universities plagued by antisemitism.
TRANSCRIPT
In recent weeks, Americans have been horrified to see students and faculty at Harvard and other once-respected universities expressing support for the savages and jihadists who attacked Israel. We spend more money on higher education than any other country, and yet they’re turning our students into Communists and terrorists and sympathizers of many, many different dimensions — we can’t let this happen. It’s time to offer something dramatically different.
Under the plan I’m announcing today, we will take the billions and billions of dollars that we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments, and we will then use that money to endow a new institution called the American Academy.
Its mission will be to make a truly world-class education available to every American, free of charge, and do it without adding a single dime to the federal debt. This institution will gather an entire universe of the highest quality educational content, covering the full spectrum of human knowledge and skills, and make that material available to every American citizen online for free.
Whether you want lectures or an ancient history or an introduction to financial accounting, or training in a skilled trade, the goal will be to deliver it and get it done properly, using study groups, mentors, industry partnerships, and the latest breakthrough in computing. This will be a truly top-tier education option for the people.
It will be strictly non-political, and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed—none of that’s going to be allowed.
Most importantly, the American Academy will compete directly with the existing and very costly four-year university system by granting students degree credentials that the U.S. government and all federal contractors will henceforth recognize. The Academy will award the full and complete equivalent of a bachelor’s degree.
In addition to help the 40 million Americans who have some college education but no degree, the American Academy will grant credit for past coursework at legacy institutions and give you the chance to complete your education at the American Academy for free and much more quickly than is now possible or available.
This will be a revolution in higher education and will provide life-changing opportunities for tens of millions of our citizens.
Enjoy it, learn from it, and thank you.
