The State of Texas isn’t the only government entity using your money for venture capital schemes. The University of Texas now spends millions of public dollars “investing” in student start-up companies.
Since 2011, the University of Texas has been using public dollars to invest in start-up companies created by UT students. Using the excuse of seeking to “create jobs” for its students, the board of regents invested $10 million of state money into the fund in the last year alone.
Those dollars, which come from the states “Available University Fund,” would have otherwise gone towards the operational costs of the state’s public universities.
And last we checked, government-funded venture capitalism was not a core function of a public university.
Recruiting top students and faculty is a laudable goal for a university to have, but using public money from a fund with even less oversight and accountability than the corporate welfare programs managed by the governor’s office is the wrong way to do it.
With UT’s vast network of alumni and private resources donated by businesses and the like, is it really unfathomable to think this same project could be done with private donations instead?
