America’s Prosperity and Charity Come from Entrepreneurship, Not Government

About 15 years ago, I attended an entrepreneurship education conference in St. Louis. Among the attendees were educators from Great Britain. This was fairly unusual, and I was curious why they would have traveled to the central United States. When I inquired, their answers were enlightening.They noted that American entrepreneurs’ contributions to higher education were prodigious. They remarked on the many colleges and universities named for the benefactors who donated huge sums of money to find them, not to mention the countless buildings, wings, programs, and scholarships created and maintained by perhaps lesser amounts. Even at publicly funded schools here in the U.S., private donations provide substantial support.“We have no comparable tradition of giving in the U.K.,” one of the visitors further explained. “Our education is largely funded by the government. We’re interested in changing that dynamic.“It mak …