The Billion Dollar Debate Over Research Funding At Public Universities

When it comes to higher education, taxpayers, legislators and educators on both sides of the aisle seem to agree that something is broken and the cost is too high.

That’s about where the agreement ends.

Enter artificial intelligence. In the wake of federal threats to freeze funds and halt research at many of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, The Center Square was given the opportunity to look at federal grants on a broad scale.

Jennica Pounds, widely known by her X handle, @DataRepublican, is a DOGE-style investigator who uses AI technology to mine the inner workings of the U.S. government. Within that scope falls huge Biden-era spending bills like the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act and the more than $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act.

To better understand how the money was used, Pounds trained her sights on Pennsylvania’s most recognizable public institutions: Penn State University and the University of Pittsburgh. The data also encompassed the University of Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump’s own Ivy League alma mater.

The entire Ivy League has drawn criticism from the Trump administration, citing massive endowments, exorbitant tuition prices, “woke” policies, and alleged tolerance of antisemitism. The way UPenn’s budget factors in federal grant dollars, however, looks different. For these reasons, The Center Square will examine private institutions separately.

While each school has different funding structures, student bodies, and fields of excellence, all rely on federal taxpayer-funded grants to conduct research that gives them global reach.