Schools for Scandal

If you're making out your brackets for the upcoming men's college basketball tournament, you might want to take a second look at them.  Some of those fine schools have been named in a scheme in which wealthy individuals--CEOs, attorneys, Hollywood actresses, etc.--allegedly had documents and test scores altered for thousands of dollars so their kids could get into the best institutions for learning money could buy.

This stuff has been going on for as long as anyone can remember.  The only surprise is that now people are getting caught for it, but will likely not see much (if any) prison time.  And the kids who might be just as guilty as their parents are the ones who had mediocre academic records, and who'd rather be social media stars than scholars anyhow.

This leaves all of those deserving students--the ones who don't have rich parents or connections--out in the cold as far as getting into prestigious colleges is concerned.  Instead, they're forced to make do with State U and/or their local community college.  Nothing wrong with them.  It's just that they're not Duke, Stanford or Harvard.

Another big problem is the debt that comes with a college education, especially if you don't have much money to begin with.  Unless you've saved up enough by working two or three jobs or applying frequently for every student loan available, the college of your choice is out of reach.  And since you have a loan, you are expected to pay it back, right?  Maybe for the rest of your life, until your grand children finally pay it off.  Which is why people are having such a hard time finding a home, buying a car or starting a family.  Rich kids don't have to worry about any of that, because their parents would take care of that for them.

Now that examples will presumably be made of all those affluent parents who only wanted what was best for their college-bound children, but ended up doing things the wrong way, it will be interesting to see if anything changes.  Colleges and universities, at the government's request, will review and then update its admissions policies to ensure that they are done fair and square.  They will also have to find a way to make school more affordable to those who do not otherwise have the means to do so.

But most of all, there's nothing wrong with being a graduate of Podunk U. instead of the University of Southern California or Yale.  They might not have bracket-worthy athletic programs, but a degree is still a degree no matter how much it costs.