Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) likes to talk a lot about an affordability crisis in higher education. Fortunately for Ms. Warren and her husband, there’s no crisis at all for the people who work there.
This week Forbes magazine estimates the net worth of various 2020 presidential candidates. While it’s no surprise that a number of former business and finance executives come to the campaign with sizable fortunes, what’s remarkable is how much wealth is now attainable for those in the allegedly non-profit sector of the U.S economy.
Dan Alexander, Chase Peterson-Withorn and Michela Tindera of Forbes estimate that Sen. Warren and her husband enjoy a net worth of $12 million. According to Forbes:
Teachers aren’t paid so poorly after all—at least not Harvard professors. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, both longtime instructors at the university, have built up a small fortune through years of teaching, writing and consulting. Their largest holdings include TIAA and CREF accounts—available to educators and nonprofit employees—worth more than $4 million. One of their best investments has been their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, purchased in 1995 for $447,000. It’s now worth an estimated $3 million.
The couple purchased the home around the time that Ms. Warren stopped listing herself as a “minority” in the Association of American Law Schools directory. By that time she had won a contested tenure vote from the Harvard Law School faculty and as far as this column can tell she never again called herself “American Indian” in registering with a state bar association. In the years that followed Ms. Warren and her husband achieved healthy levels of wealth and income. According to Forbes, it’s possible that the Warren/Mann household is now worth even more than $12 million:No one, not even the Democrats who spend the most time bashing Trump for his financial dealings, were willing to release full tax returns, file financial disclosures and answer all of Forbes’ questions about their personal finances. Elizabeth Warren, for example… wouldn’t give guidance on the true value of her husband’s investments, listed on her disclosures with a vague value of “over $1 million.”
Nobody is claiming that any of the current crop of presidential candidates is as good as the Clintons when it comes to monetizing political power. But some voters may be surprised at how well educators at non-profit, tax-advantaged institutions are compensated, particularly when university schedules allow them to supplement their incomes with outside projects. In April of this year, Matt Murphy reported for the State House News Service in Massachusetts: