THE legions of Elon Musk stans who have long dreamed of following in the footsteps of the raging billionaire will soon have the opportunity to learn directly from the master. Or rather, they will have the opportunity to attend a university created by Musk. And learn science. Or something. Maybe.
Tax returns examined by Bloomberg show that the billionaire plans to create a primary and secondary school in Austin, Texas, that will focus primarily on STEM. Bloomberg cites a tax exemption application filed with the IRS by The Foundation, one of Musk’s charities. That application, filed last year and approved in March, shows Musk using $100 million of his own money to operate the school. The school plans to seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and will eventually “expand” and develop into a university “dedicated to education at the highest levels,” Bloomberg reports.
In short: Musk appears to be taking inspiration from the frameworks of other intellectually disaffected figures who want to remake higher education.
THE Crowd of the “intellectual dark web” (of which, Musk is tangentially related) has long criticized the overly “woke” methods of traditional universities and, as such, has attempted – again and again – to establish new educational systems more suited to their ideological preferences. For the most part, these attempts were not particularly successful.
Musk’s motivation for starting his own university hasn’t been made clear at this point, so it’s unclear why he thinks it’s a good idea. Knowing Musk, I imagine he has billions, “Humanity in service” justification in mind.
The truth is, everyone who is determined to remake American education should really team up and create a giant, super-weird mega-university. Bari Weiss can manage the humanities. Musk will take care of STEM. Jordan Peterson can handle…no matter what it is it’s doing these days. I’m sure the kids will love it.
