The Good Work Investigative News Team is back to track the rise of massive endowments among higher education’s elite schools and ask the question no other fake comedy reporters would dare: why?

Melissa Korn is a higher education reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Brian Galle is an academic at Georgetown Law focusing on tax policy, nonprofits, and behavioral economics. Catherine Liu is a writer and professor of film and media studies at UC Irvine who often writes about the politics of class. Abbie Darst is the executive director of marketing and communications at Berea College.

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Learn more about Berea College: https://www.berea.edu/

Video by Dan Toomey and Henry Stockwell

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Why are college endowments so massive?

00:00-00:45: Intro
00:45-03:06: Defining endowments
03:06-05:10: How do schools grow endowments?
05:10-07:45: Why do schools want phat endowments?
07:45-08:59: Schools want to be prestigious
08:59-09:56: Tuition is really expensive
09:56-13:36: Why can’t big endowments cover tuition?
13:36-14:11: Could elite schools teach more people?
14:11-15:06: Fund managers on boards of trustees
15:06-17:05: Ideas for using endowments differently
17:05-17:18: Shabooyah

Why are college endowments so massive?