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Comment by amazingamazing | Hacker News Reader

private schools shouldn't be getting public money. shocking people disagree. yes they do research that benefits the public. so does Meta and Google, who don't get public money. public money should go to public schools.

especially considering that the PIs who do the work in the private school scenario effectively boost the private school's clout with public money, but these private schools do not increase accessibility by opening up admission further.

that said, trump is also doing this for the wrong reasons, sadly.

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> private schools shouldn't be getting public money. shocking people disagree. yes they do research that benefits the public. so does Meta and Google, who don't get public money. public money should go to public schools.

Those two are not the same. Research funded by Meta/Google doesn't benefit the public in the same way as research in Ivies (and non-Ivies).

This is the government paying for a service.

Should a private cement company get public money for delivering cement?

> This is the government paying for a service.

a service public schools can do.

not as well. Grants are a competitive process.

When building a highway, the government should put out notice and buy the best offering.

Im not sure why you would want government buying sub-par research just because it comes from a public school

it would solve themselves. all of the good PIs at the good private schools would go to the good public schools. there's no actual inherent reason why private schools are bad like you're implying.

I'm skeptical of the idea that money and fix any problem, and that there are no inherent differences.

Setting that aside, why do you think it is even desirable to limit funding to public institutions in the first place?

Seems like you're starting from this position and moving backwards.

If Public schools are superior, why haven't they already out competed private institutions? They have a pretty huge advantage from additional tax revenue.

private schools were first that's pretty much it.

Sure, and if there were a law proposed in Congress to restrict federal research funding to public institutions and bar all private institutions, we could debate the merits of that.

That is not, however, what is happening. Institutions, without regard to whether they are public or private, are having research funding used as a lever to secure adherence to the political ideology of the ruling party, unilaterally by the executive branch.

The attempt to make this a debate about public vs private institutions is a distraction from and cover for that.

Public works departments can deliver the cement. It’s more efficient to have the cement hauler do so.

Meta and Google definitely get a ton of public money.

they shouldn't.

What about private research institutes which do no education of undergraduates? What do you base your pronouncement on?

Meta and Google absolutely do get public money, for another commonly known example, every single one of Elon Musk's companies have gotten significant funding paid for through our taxes — government contracts, subsidies, grants, you name it

those also shouldn't - at least without the government getting an equity stake.

don't really disagree, but also this is a "get money out of politics" level change — next to impossible because there are piles of money to be made by the people in charge

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