The Little-Known Incentive for Elite Universities to Admit More Middle-Class Students

By James S. Murphy and Ryan Cieslikowski

Mr. Murphy is a senior fellow and Mr. Cieslikowski is the director of Class Action, a student-driven nonprofit.

Princeton recently waived tuition for most students from families making up to $250,000 a year. Reporting in The Daily Princetonian suggests that this move may have removed the university from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s endowment tax rolls.

Although Republicans created the tax on endowments in 2017 and increased it for many institutions last year as little more than a way to stick a thumb in the eye of elite colleges, they may have inadvertently created........

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