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The
reports and the ensuing federal indictments give a stark
picture of some conniving parents, even resorting to
outright fraud and trickery to make sure that
their "less than suitable"
offspring can sneak in the side door to a college with a
name that gives the graduate a leg up on the poor schmuck
who graduates from
a lesser-named college.
Of course, it seems a
good bet that those who are privileged and pampered will
pass on to their progeny that somehow they too should
emulate their nefarious ways and trick the system to suit
their peccadilloes.
The investigating
lawyers from the Justice Department indicated that this
academic scandal may be only the tip of the iceberg.
Believe it! Why? When
money meets opportunity, money normally is the Mike Tyson of
the encounter and thus when parents of fabulous means find
that they can "buy a vowel" and get their kid or kids into
prestigious schools without the accompanying, but needed,
baggage of serious scholarship or study, they do it.
It somehow has come to
mean in some rich circles in America that all is for sale
including access to prestigious colleges and if you are
rich, and or rich and famous, you may take it as a
gratuitous perk of your status in life that such
entitlements are yours for the taking...or paying in this
case.
One thing good about
this scandal is that other lesser financially-empowered
white families will now see that there is status and then
there is real status and that their upper crust white and
richer cousins are out sunning by the country club pool
while they are paying gym membership to a common YMCA pool.
You know...the pool
with all of the "others" who can not afford ritzy
memberships in country clubs and elite and swanky social
clubs.
If this is just the tip of
this admissions scandal, can you imagine if those in the
know start giving up other knaves who did the same for their
kids and that they have been defrauding the system for
decades and decades!
And yet....these same
malefactors will poo-poo affirmative action which is NOT
based on deception or lies or payoffs but yet they are
amenable to educational skullduggery if it benefits "their"
kids.
I daresay that if the
prosecutors push the envelope, they will find that this
system of gaming the academic system is pervasive if not
only in outright bribes but also in some alumni getting
their "not too bright kids" into their alma mater for the
sake of getting a degree from a highly-recognized college.
We all have heard the
usual stories of fat cats paying eye dropping sums to their
schools to name buildings or establish scholarships or to
fund or endow certain academic chairs; and we know that such
donors may have an expectation of some reciprocity for their
generosity.
The named schools in this
investigation were swift to identify the culprits and fire
them so as to have some damage control and protect their
images as institutions that are above reproach. That will
help somewhat but what is always lurking around the corner
is the rich parent who instinctively knows that her kids do
not belong in an Ivy League School but rather at a state
university or a two year college.
The only problem with
that is if you are rich and famous and your kids are
reaching colleges years, you have to start fending off
questions of where they will enroll after high school.
There is the
presumption that if you are rich and famous, it should be
obvious that your kid got the best high school education
money could buy but in the long run, it was determined that
your kid was not "college material."
So, to avoid social
stigma, you shell out thousands or even hundred of thousands
of dollars to get your kid into a top-tier school and thus
quiet the questions about where your kids is going to
college.
When you factor in
seemingly unlimited funding from rich and anxious parents
wanting to place their kids in an impressive school, the
value of that education is diminished since the recipient
may not want to be the standard bearer of your educational
crusade.
If the kids know about
the charade that you are engaging them into, shame on them
because they are now under the stress of performing or
failing their parents. If the kid did not know about the
scam and he is later found out to be "that" kid who got in
the side door, he is a pariah amongst his classmates.
It is now as if money
for some is the new "affirmative action" but only for rich
white folks where their money, coupled with their whiteness,
is not a standout as if were a qualified black kid going to
a prestigious school but yet some white class mates doubt
his bona fides to be sitting alongside them in History 101.
Any college that enjoys
a stellar reputation is going to review its admissions
procedures to make sure that all of its applicants did not
get the benefit of a money payoff scam that resulted in
their admissions.
Yeah, the good ol' boy
system and alumni watching out for each other will continue
in spite of the best protective systems since wealth
apparently believes that its presence should make inroads
wherever or whenever it presents itself be it in Congress or
at the doors of academia.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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