<p>I'm not a constitutional attorney and it's been many years since law school. I'll do my best; if someone has a more nuanced explanation, go for it.</p>
<p>The question of federal money only goes to the power of the federal government to regulate. It doesn't mean that anything a fundee does is subject to constitutional restrictions. For instance, a private person can't violate, say, the equal protection clause. They might be made subject to a federal civil rights law passed to enforce the equal protection clause, however.</p>
<p>Actually, private schools get federal money too.</p>
<p>The only way the action of a state entity can violate the US constitution is through the 14th Amendment. (Something called the incorporation doctrine has made most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the state, saying that these rights constitute the "due process" guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.)</p>
<p>Even if there is a good argument that something a state entity has done is stupid or unfair, this doesn't make it unconstitutional. An argument that the SAT is flawed doesn't rise to the same level as an equal protection challenge to a racial classification. The scrutiny a court would give to the former would be limited, since the only way I can see to attack it would be to say it violates substantive due process. The standard for this is whether a reasonable person COULD agree with the action taken -- a very low standard which in practice nearly everything can meet. So if a reasonable public college administrator might rely on the SAT, there would be no constitutional infirmity.</p>
<p>The fact that the test is private is really irrelevant. It isn't as if the public entity has delegated a particular function to a private firm and has no oversight over what it does. Colleges can choose to put as little or much emphasis on the test as they want. They can tell the College Board they don't like the test, which recently happened and the test was changed.</p>
<p>I personally don't like the idea of the College Board determining what a typical high school course (SAT II) or typical introductory college course (AP) entails. It seems that it comes down to how well given high school teachers can guess what will be covered on the test. As a homeschooling parent, I was on some boards for teachers of AP subjects for a couple years. I found that most of the discussion was trying to figure out which book prepared best for the test, which parts might be omitted, what was due to show up on the exam that particular year, etc. So my daughter just went with the ACT and took some actual college courses. That way we could decide for ourselves what to study and which texts to use.</p>
<p>I don't find the ACT perfect. My daughter asked for the score sheet and questions back and challenged several of the items marked wrong. I think she had a very good argument, but they just said they were right. Still, she did well enough to get into the school she really wanted (Brown) so I can't really complain too much.</p>