A few years ago, Bari Weiss founded her own “anti-woke” college. The University of Austin, which claims it wants to “dare” its students to “think,” has made waves for many reasons, and Weiss and her cohort have sought to position it as the future model of American education. That model includes a curriculum where students do stuff like study the philosophical beliefs of people like Palantir CEO Alex Karp—make of that what you will. The school also appears to be on its way to accreditation, which would help with calling itself an actual university. Now, in a surprising twist, the rightwing school has a fairly leftwing offering to its students: free tuition.
This week, on its Substack, UATX announced that it would not be charging future students for the pleasure of attending. The school writes:
Graduates spend decades shouldering debt for hollow credentials. This debt influences every decision they make: What job to take. Where to live. When to marry. When to have children. Some will never start that company. Never take that risk. Never build what they were meant to build. Meanwhile, universities take billions of subsidies from Washington while hoarding billions in endowments. And every year, they raise tuition.
“UATX will never charge tuition,” the blog adds. “And we will never take government money.”
But you know what it will take? Billionaire money. Billionaire money is definitely up for grabs. UATX notes that just such a wonderful gift has set its students free:
Thanks to a $100 million gift from Jeff Yass — the largest donation since UATX was founded in 2021 — we’re breaking the chains. His gift marks the launch of a $300 million campaign to build a university that sets students free. Our bet: Create graduates so exceptional they’ll pay it forward when they succeed, financing the tuition of the next generation. When our students build important companies, defend our nation, advance scientific frontiers, build families, and create works that elicit awe, they’ll remember who made their excellence possible. And they’ll give back.
Yes, the reason that UATX is able to make its “college” tuition-free is because it just received a generous donation from Jeff Yass, a pivotal investor in TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Last December, Fortune reported that, despite a ban on the social media site, TikTok might be able to survive in the U.S., thanks to Yass, who is also a donor to Trump’s super PAC. Yass has been described as a “billionaire pal” of Trump’s and a “libertarian poker player,” and his Susquehanna International Group, a trading firm and investment group, holds a 15 percent stake in ByteDance a source told the New York Times. In the past, Yass has also been linked to other interesting activities, including $16 million in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups, and he was also linked to funding challenges aimed at Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, The Guardian previously wrote. Yass also reportedly donated to Trump’s ridiculous new White House ballroom.
That said, it’s nice to see the rightwing supporting tuition-free college! Now where have I heard that idea before…oh yeah, I believe a certain Senator from Vermont has been really supportive of it. I also believe, if my memory serves me correctly, that he was ridiculed as a “communist” and accused of trying to impose Soviet-style collectivization on our nation for having the temerity to suggest that America’s young people shouldn’t die with college loan debt and we could just make billionaires pay for it.
But, of course, none of this is very surprising. The modern conservative movement has always preferred private money to public funding—arguably because whoever holds the purse strings has the power and, these days, conservatives really seem to prefer that unaccountable billionaires have the power rather than an elected bureaucracy with checks and balances.
Yes, if you’re a billionaire, starting your own school is very “in” these days. Elon Musk has one, Jeff Bezos has one, and Bill Ackman is a proud supporter of the Alpha School, a startup educational franchise that uses AI to teach kids instead of teachers. Then there are the host of other educational websites from rightwing influencers like Jordan Peterson and Dennis Prager. In short: If you have deep pockets and want to indoctrinate the future leaders of tomorrow, it’s never been a better time to jump on the bandwagon.
Even Zuck has one. Yes, it recently came to light that Mark Zuckerberg had opened his own school at his massive residence in Palo Alto several years ago. It’s somewhat unclear what the point of the school was, although Wired notes that it was called the “Bicken Ben School,” named after one of Zuck’s family chickens. However, according to Wired, the school was accused of operating without the proper license, and neighbors were annoyed that an illegal school was operating in their community. Wired cites emails that claim the school was shut down in June of this year. However, a lawyer associated with the family told the outlet that “the school didn’t close, per se. It simply moved. It’s not clear where it is now located, or whether the school is operating under a different name.”
The future of education is filled with disruption and innovation.
Lucas Ropek
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