By Stephen Dinan | The Washington Times

Stanford, Northwestern and the Ivy League universities have collected a combined $33 billion in taxpayer-funded grants and contracts and another $12 billion in tax breaks on their endowments over the last five years, according to new data from OpenTheBooks.com.

That $45 billion is now being called into question as lawmakers fume over the schools’ handling of pro-Palestinian sentiments on campus in the wake of Hamas‘ attack on Israel last month.

Adam Andrzejewski, founder of the government spending watchdog OpenTheBooks, said Americans should be surprised by the significant amount of support they are giving to the schools.

“With the U.S. taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and federal payments into these 10 elite universities pushing $7 billion per year, it’s time to revisit the definition of a public charity,” he said. “Collectively, these schools have gamed the tax code for vast institutional enrichment.”

Stanford University led the way with $7 billion in grants and contracts. Columbia University was second with $5.9 billion. Harvard University was fifth with $3.3 billion over the 2018-2022 period. Dartmouth College was the only Ivy not to get at least $1 billion.

OpenTheBooks said the massive amount of money makes the schools “more federal contractor than they are educator.”

The largesse spanned administrations, with both the Trump and Biden teams pouring taxpayer cash into the Ivies and other elite universities. Over the five years studied, the schools got between $6 billion and $7 billion in grants and contracts each year.