May 24, 2021 3:33PM # Looking Deeper Than Hannah-Jones’ Tenure: Public Colleges Are the Problem By [Neal McCluskey](https://www.cato.org/people/neal-mccluskey) --- SHARE I take no position on whether journalist and 1619 Project impresario Nikole Hannah-Jones should get [tenure with her new position](https://apnews.com/article/nc-state-wire-36056a7583d3d7e807268f9ef581d010) as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism at the University of North Carolina. But from a public policy perspective, it is worth remembering that public colleges are government institutions that state taxpayers are forced to fund. In the case of the University of North Carolina, state appropriations came to [nearly $535 million](https://finance.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/298/2020/11/2020-comprehensive-annual-financial-report.pdf#page=43) in 2020. That taxpayers’ representatives, which the board of trustees that blocked tenure for Hannah-Jones are a part of, would interfere in university decisions should be expected. Indeed, working with the board of governors, “control, supervision, management, and governance” is [their job](https://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/policy/index.php#policy-tab). Fundamentally, academic freedom – the grounds on which it is argued that only university faculty should make academic decisions – is incompatible with forced funding of an institution. There is good reason that academics should be able to pursue ideas as they see fit – progress comes when untested and sometimes unpopular ideas can be explored – but academics must not be *more* free than everyone else; their freedom cannot mean others are *forced* to fund them. If we want public financing of higher education, the only way to come close to reconciling academic and funder freedom is for public money to go to students, not be appropriated to institutions. Then the ideas explored and extolled in ivory towers would more likely reflect the people generally, at least to the extent that college attendees reflect overall society. It [would not be a perfect match](https://news.gallup.com/poll/275792/remained-center-right-ideologically-2019.aspx), but it would be closer while making individual choice – not political power – much more central. ##### Related Tags [Politics and Society](https://www.cato.org/politics-society), [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [General](https://www.cato.org/general) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).