Many people were likely surprised when the long-awaited decision in the Harvard Asian-discrimination case came down and Federal judge Allison Burroughs ruled in favor of Harvard. It appeared the smart money, after the shroud was removed from the Harvard admissions process, would be on Harvard losing, a seeming perpetrator of discrimination against Asian-Americans.

Thankfully, the smart money was not so perceptive after all, because diversity may well have value, past discrimination may call for rectification, and allowing maximum freedom is the best way to deal with values-laden problems that have no clear solutions.

The first thing to remember is that Harvard is a private institution, not public.

Basically, private institutions should be free to have affirmative action, but it should be prohibited at public institutions.

A public institution — a government institution — must be held much more strictly to “objective” admissions than private.

Not only am I against government mandated affirmative action for public colleges, I am against those institutions choosing affirmative action. Of course, since public colleges are government institutions, what they might choose is de facto a government mandate from a state citizen perspective.

Related: OPINION: Harvard ruling is a positive step for diversity, but will ...

Unlike private schools, everyone is forced to fund governments and their institutions — indeed, government is the only entity that can legally jail or execute you — and that makes a public institution denying someone a benefit far more dangerous than when a private institution does. Unequal treatment by government is inescapable.

VISIT WEBSITE

This story about government affirmative action was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.

Neal McCluskey is the director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Education Freedom  and the author of Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education.

The post OPINION: Why affirmative action should be prohibited at public coll... appeared first on The Hechinger Report.