WASHINGTON (AP) — Every year, the U.S. spends millions of dollars to send government workers to Harvard for a month, an expensive training arrangement that some in Congress are questioning.
A monthlong leadership course at the Ivy League university costs taxpayers more than $18,000 per employee. That’s more than twice what the average public university charges for tuition and fees, excluding room and board, for an entire year, and enough to pay the same charges for a semester and a half at the average private university.
Government and school officials say that’s what it costs to train executives. And it‘s what’s being paid by top companies, which compete with government agencies for talent.
But the Obama administration acknowledges that nobody’s in charge of figuring out whether the government is getting the best deal possible, or even whether the training is worth the money.
The practice came to light this spring when Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, asked Harvard about its Senior Executive Fellows program and why it costs so much. Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government responded that, while the Senior Executive Fellows program was its most popular government training program, it also offered government classes on leadership, regulating and economic development ranging from $500 to $1,000 a day.
With the U.S. embroiled in two wars and still recovering from an economic meltdown, dean David Ellwood wrote to Grassley, “It is hard to imagine a time when we more badly need wise and effective public servants who are well-equipped to respond to these large and rapidly changing challenges.”
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