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 Actually, the determination of the US Dept of Ed and of Gallaudet should also be regarded as being just as tentative as my commonsense analysis above.  Why should they be given priority in their *untested* theory? 

 They key is what the court would rule and the matter has never been put before the court. 

 It looks like a good compromise, and possibily the most authoritative source we can find is from the document called "Pofiles of Existing Government CorporationsA StudyPrepared by the U.S. General Accounting Office for the Committee on Government Operations", December 1988 (Document code H204-4). 

 It gives two styles of classification: 

 LEGAL STATUS: Private nonprofit educational instituation, a body corporate 

 AGENCY STATUS: None specified in enabling legistlation. 

 I think by "Legal Status" it is clear that they are not referring to a court ruling, but maybe just the opinion of Gallaudet's lawyers and the US Dept of Ed's lawyers (who filled out the forms that contributed to the report.) 

 The real key question seems to be answered by the response to "Agency Status," which is "None specified."  In other words, it is undetermined and unspecified whether Gallaudet is a federal agency or not.  In that case, we should put something like "undetermined," in place of the postulated "private." 

 In other words, we need a different word than "private," which conveys the idea that the true status has never been determined by a court of law, either something like "undetermined," or "not yet adjudicated," or something like that. 

 When are you not allowed to call a spade a spade?  If some fancy government office officially designates a toilet for the space shuttle (I'm just making up an example) as something they call a "temporary mechanical appendage for digestive assistance," then why the h-e-double-toothpicks won't Wikipedia just let us ignore such nonsense and put "toilet"? 

 I think it's completely kosher to put "hybrid" or "quasi-governmental" on that basis. A spade is a spade.  We don't have to put "Some people say that tulips are orange"No, we can just say, "Tulips are orange," without having to worry whether our description is an "untested theory." 

  
 

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