GOP plan to tax college endowments like Yale's and Harvard's would be neither fair nor effective

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Jay L. Zagorsky, The Ohio State University
(THE CONVERSATION) Tucked away in the recently announced GOP tax bill is a small item you may have missed: a new tax on university endowments. As I have spent decades working in higher education, the proposal immediately piqued my interest.

Colleges create endowments by raising funds from alumni, companies and other donors, invest the money in stocks, bonds and other assets, and use the returns to fund student aid programs, professors’ salaries and any other expenses needed to run a college. Republicans want to slap a 1.