It pains me to say this, as both an economist and a graduate of Columbia, but: It may be time to break up not only Columbia but also America’s entire system of elite higher education.

America’s large private research universities, such as Columbia and Harvard, have long been crucial to its economic exceptionalism. The symbiotic relationship between universities and the federal government, which subsidizes tuition and funds research, has created growth and innovation that is the envy of the world.

Now, instead of being a source of national pride, many elite universities have become a source of national division, with some Americans viewing them as decadent, hypocritical or even hostile to their values.

It was thus inevitable they’d become a target of President Donald Trump’s administrati

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