Inside Higher Ed has a story today on a Department of Education plan to change the way colleges and universities collect data on the racial and ethnic “identities” of their students. The plan is drawing criticism, but the whole thing is much ado about nothing. These details about students’ backgrounds shouldn’t be any business of the federal government in the first place. This is another of the many instances where government statistics can do no good, but often lead to nasty fights and pointless meddling.