Public Funds, Private Politics: Examining Bias in the Truman Scholarship Program
House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development
2025-12-03
Loading video...
Source: Congress.gov
Summary
No summary available.
Participants
Transcript
M
Ms. Jennifer Kabbany
LGBTQ issues. In the 2018 cohort, not a single Republican or conservative winner could be found among the biographies. Most recently, for the class of 2025, we found 43 of the 54 winners have worked for Democratic politicians, advocated progressive causes, or identify as left leaning. Only three scholars openly supported conservative causes. The College Fix also reviewed the jobs and careers of the 2015 to 2020-22 cohorts to determine what the Truman beneficiaries are doing now. Our research revealed that the scholarship spawns 35 Democratic careers for every one Republican career. At least 226 of these scholarship recipients have obtained jobs and careers directly tied to or advancing left-wing beliefs or the democratic platform. In contrast, only four Truman alumni could be found to have worked in GOP politics or conservative causes. The Truman Scholarship also seeks regional diversity in its selections and tries to award its scholarships to students from winners in every state. We looked at the 125 Truman Scholars from 2015 to 2024 from states like Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, and Utah. Of those, 60 of the scholars, or 48%, went to have at least one job working for left-wing, progressive, or Democratic causes after winning the scholarship. In contrast, only three winners could be found to have gone on to work for a conservative or Republican cause. The imbalance shows that those nominating and selecting the winners of this taxpayer-funded scholarship favor left-wing, democratic, and progressive causes. This structural bias persists across many years, and it contradicts the program's public purpose.
M
Ms. Jennifer Kabbany
M
Ms. Ashley Harrington
Good morning, Chairman Owens, Ranking Member Adams and members of the subcommittee. My name is Ashley Harrington. I serve as a senior policy counsel at the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Founded by our nation's first black U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, LDF is America's premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. For 85 years, LDF has advocated for equal opportunity for all. We work to dismantle barriers that hold people back because of their race, their zip code or the wealth they were born into. Since the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which LDF litigated and won, we have continued to fight for the rights of black students to receive high quality, equitable educational opportunities as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Our constitutional principle of equal protection under the law mandates that school districts, post-secondary institutions, States and the federal government provide equal educational opportunities for all students, including black students and other students of color, LGBTQIA students, students with disabilities, immigrant students, and other historically marginalized populations. Today's hearing is about the Truman Scholarship, which was created by Congress 50 years ago to invest in future public servants. The bipartisan Board of Trustees that oversees the Truman Scholarship and the individuals involved in selecting scholars have recognized potential for impactful public service in roughly 3,500 talented individuals over the past half century. These scholars are selected without regard to partisan identity and pursue varied fields of study, ranging from law and policy to public health and education. Attempts to label broad categories of public service as inherently partisan are harmful. But we know what this is. This is just the latest action in the continuous effort of the Trump administration and its congressional allies to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of individuals by attempting to punish those who disagree with the administration's ideology.
M
Ms. Ashley Harrington
But public service has no ideology. And public service certainly cannot be cabined only to those views and issues that the administration favors. Regardless, the Truman Scholarship represents an appropriation of $3 million a year and directly impacts just 50 to 60 students annually. The cuts to the higher education safety net made in the One Big Beautiful Bill are a far greater consequence to the millions of Americans who have never even heard of the Truman Scholarship. They are the students who are already struggling with student debt, the parents unsure how they will pay for their children's education, and the working adults trying to return to school to improve their lives. Every year, millions of students enroll in college, and millions more pursue graduate and professional degrees. They do so because they understand the earnings premium and opportunities that come with education. But they also do so with growing anxiety about affordability, debt, and whether our systems are truly designed to support them. They include students of color, first-generation students, veterans, adult learners, and low-income Americans, current and future students who are counting on this committee to care about their economic mobility and their access to opportunity, not just talking points. The Truman Scholarship's $3 million is a drop in the bucket compared to what our nation spends on higher education each year. Across programs and departments, we spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year on higher education, with about $120 billion allocated to students in federal grants and loans alone. There are 43 million Americans shouldering $1.6 trillion in student debt. That is why I hope today's conversation can shift towards making our entire higher education system more affordable and accessible for all students, instead of having a narrow, partisan dialogue about the very few who receive this elite scholarship. Instead of removing barriers, the OBBA constructs new ones, pitting everyday Americans against the wealthy few and making it even harder for people to pursue education as a pathway to a better life.
M
Ms. Ashley Harrington
Sign up for free to see the full transcript
Accounts help us prevent bots from abusing our site. Accounts are free and will allow you to access the full transcript.