And that's the crux, isn't it? It's not so much of an issue of State vs. private funding as it is how those private donations come from a very narrow, homogenized demographic: upper middle class whites, over-educated yet under-fulfilled, and who consider themselves the intellectual superiors of our culture and yet who cannot tolerate the slightest dissent from their worldview. The calm, dulcimer-toned recitations and validations they receive from their Gods are what gets them through their day.