Koch’s $5.6 million to Montana State University part of outreach to campuses

The Charles Koch Foundation’s $5.67 million grant to Montana State University to create an economic research center fits with the billionaire’s long-term efforts to influence not only academic research and government policy but also the “hearts and minds” of America’s next generation.

His foundation has already given more than $200 million to colleges and universities, and the 80-year-old Charles Koch plans to accelerate that giving in coming years, as he discussed in a June interview with the Washington Post, “Inside Charles Koch’s $200 million quest for a ‘Republic of Science.’”

It’s an effort, the Post reported, “that will continue to shape academic research and student learning long after the effects of his political giving have faded.”

Charles Koch, the Kansas-based CEO of the petrochemical conglomerate Koch Industries, is ranked as one of the world’s wealthiest billionaires. As major political donors promoting libertarian, conservative and Republican causes, brothers Charles and David Koch have often been criticized by Democrats and people on the left, particularly for “dark money” political contributions through groups like Americans for Prosperity.

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