The college bribery scandal has rightly earned bipartisan censure.
Actresses Lori Loughlin of “Full House” and Felicity Huffman of “Desperate Housewives,” along with some four dozen others, allegedly participated in a scheme in which celebrities and CEOs conspired with coaches and SAT administrators to make sure high school students such as Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade Giannulli, a 19-year-old YouTuber, could make it into elite colleges.
Frank Bruni at the New York Times wrote that the “scandal is just the latest proof of a grossly uneven playing field.” Its message to kids is simple: “Just sit back and let entitlement run its course.” With a little bribery and fraud, we can all achieve our (parents’) dreams.
Writing at National Review, Kevin Williamson says the fact that the story became so big reflects “how elite discourse always reflects elite interests and elite assumptions.” People who never thought getting into Yale or Stanford was important may not be shocked by the illegal steps taken by those who do.
But there’s a consensus between the Right and Left, though each side differs on the details. Some of the elite and out-of-touch upper class in America value the prestige of an education more than the education itself. The scandal is just more evidence of misaligned priorities and the loopholes our society offers to those with the money to buy them.
Last summer, before she started at the University of Southern California, Giannulli said on her YouTube channel, “I don’t really care about school.” Even before the cheating scandal, the backlash was bad enough that she released a new video to apologize for her “super ignorant and stupid” comments.
“It totally came across that I’m ungrateful for college … And it just kind of made it seem like I don’t care, I just want to brush it off. I’m just gonna be successful at YouTube and not have to worry about school,” she said. “I’m really disappointed in myself.”
Olivia Jade’s parents were both accused of paying $500,000 for their daughters to get into school as crew team recruits even though neither of them rowed. They had surely heard her express her distaste for education before they allegedly broke the law just so their daughters could party at USC.
But like bureaucracies, elites in America have to self-perpetuate. And to do so, they have to attend the right schools. Neither the Left nor the Right is particularly shocked that this is the case, and they can both agree that our collective attitude toward education must change.
The FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, Joseph Bonavolonta, said, “Everyone charged here today had a role in fostering a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for students trying to get into these schools the right way through hard work, good grades and community service.”
This type of scandal, the largest case of admissions bribery at elite schools, just shows what happens when your culture values image over education.
