Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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.