I went to school and later worked at a state university that had substantial ties to the fossil fuel industry, including a lot of donations for infrastructure and research. Whenever we published something or taught something there was always a behind the scenes discussion about how we had to tred lightly about biting the hand that fed us ("don't say bad things about oil and coal, they give us tens of millions a year"). Heck, it even influenced the lines and the types of research the university would promote publications or sometimes even allow.
Not sure if the pandemic helped or hindered public university revenue streams, but I have to suspect all the economic downturn hurt admissions and revenue more than helped. They were already hurting across the country prior to the pandemic so I only imagine it's worse now. That means piles of money can carry even more influence than before.
Is that's what's actually happening though? It looks like they're paying for employee to go to certain (community?) colleges, not for them to get AWS certs.