[geebee]

<Doesn't make them less private>

Ok, now I can see why we disagree.

Private/public is, to me, not binary. There are degrees. A homeowner, for instance, does get a favored tax status where it comes to income taxes (though the home owner also pays heavy property taxes that largely offset this). Yet we wouldn't regulate what people are allowed to talk about in their own home.

But on this continuum, Harvard is pretty far toward the "public" side of private. Massive amounts of government funding and tax exemptions.

And anyway, the government wouldn't need to get in the business of running Harvard, it could just say "here are the criteria for receiving federal grants and the tax exemptions". Harvard would be free to choose.

[yawaramin]

Aren't you forgetting something? Money never comes with no strings attached. Harvard's government funding already came with conditions. Controlling Harvard's admittance policy (which has been in place for a long time) is evidently not something the government cares about.