re: Ivy League universities get billions from US taxpayers, report says

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They can apply for some of those grants.

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"Pretty sure that the inequality of the outcomes demonstrates bias," he said sarcastically.

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this creates a circular argument

universities gain prestige for research

federal funds allows for more research for a select few schools

those universities gain prestige for the research

we're reinforcing the reputations (illusions of reputations?) of these private schools via public subsidy

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I would say it's more of of the Matthew effect, like 808 was arguing.

They gain prestige via reseach, which then attracts the best researchers, which then builds that up more. But we know this is also discipline specific; the top programs in my field are largely public universities in the Big Ten and SEC; however, what the top universities have going for then is that they are consistently at the top across disciplines too, and have medical schools and other disciplines that gain a lot of funding but are not even at a lot of universities.

I'm not sure what else they can do then provide grants to the best researchers, with the best support to do the reseach.

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Why do schools with such large endowments need/deserve any money or breaks from the federal government? Do they really need taxpayer help or taxpayer assistance?

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They are home to the best researchers, and most of that money is in research grants.