OPINION | It’s higher education, not hire education

I remember sitting to take the ACT (before the SAT became the new go-to standardized test).

It was a Tuesday, the first of the month. In the middle of my math portion, the tornado siren monthly testing went off. I was in strict, straight rows and I was quickly reminded that standardized testing brings me a type of sadness I can’t begin to explain.

But at the end of the day, we take these standardized tests, we get the results and we live with these results. We send them to colleges and anticipate the outcome. We’re hearing that these scores make a difference and they absolutely do. Test scores measure a kind of intelligence that higher education values (this is an argument for another day if that’s actually a good thing).

But what if, suddenly, my score and my test are void with the extended tampering of a next-level helicopter parent? How do you possibly live with this? Does that not scream “my parents think I’m capable of nothing?”

Hey, Mom, would you break the law for me?

On Sept. 13 Felicity Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison for paying $15,000 to tamper with and help her child cheat on the SAT. She is among a group of over 50 families who have cheated the system in some way.

This goes beyond university entrance exams. They also bribed coaches to get unqualified athletes into schools and bribed schools with money concealed as a charitable donation.

The problem here goes beyond one group or one organization. It tells people that if you have money, you get what you want. If you don’t have money, you have to work for what you want to get where you want. On both sides this is unfair.

Even worse, it is a consistent pattern with schools. This is in no way a new concept, but when prominent names like Felicity Hoffman and Lori Loughlin join the mix it becomes a larger issue. According to CNBC, schools like Yale, the University of Southern California, Stanford University, UCLA, the University of San Diego, the University of Texas, Wake Forest University and Georgetown University have all been caught up in the scandals. They knew what they were doing.

“The suit claims that the universities named as defendants ‘knew or should have known of these corrupt practices because the funds’ that were being used as bribes to gain admittance for the children of wealthy parents ‘were often going into University accounts, and to prominent University figures such as coaches and directors in charge of University accounts,’ ” said an article from CNBC.

We have become desperate to get into some of these schools that we think will guarantee us some kind of success later. Because millennials really have a hard future coming. But what’s worse, having the power to be able to make a bribe or being in a powerful enough position that you feel comfortable accepting bribes?

Hoffman expressed her utmost condolences for her actions and pled guilty in court. But for people around the country without the money and the power, sorry means nothing.  

Sorry is different for parents who could pay to send their kids to private school and give them a better shot at certain colleges. Sorry is different for the parents who could pay for tutors. Sorry is different for parents who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to any school their kid wants. Sorry is different for parents who make donations to schools or buy buildings at school. Sorry is different for parents who have millions to manipulate the higher education system.

Would it be fair to say, what’s the point of going to a “top-notch” higher education anyway? What’s really the difference, especially when mom and dad have millions?

This country has a huge problem understanding that for a lot of people the words “I’m sorry” coming out of a rich, white person’s mouth is just white noise.

And more times than not, a load of bullshit.

We have a justice problem in this country. Not only can Huffman and Loughlin afford to bribe or cheat their kids into college, but they can do it without serving the jail time they deserve. Privilege makes us safer, less touchable. Suddenly past justice isn’t the precedent, your bank account is. 

Social media continues to show outrage over the news of her prison sentence length. I don’t think it will be any better of a reaction to Lori Loughlin’s’ sentence that will be coming soon. As we continue to have anti-immigrant rhetoric in this country that leads to detainment and deportation (I’m looking at you, Trump), we become even more aware of the way rich, white Americans cheat and create a system perfectly curated for themselves. What would happen if a person of color did something similar? We need to continue to talk about the privilege and money that plagues our educational system, specifically in higher education.

In 2011, Tanya McDowell, a homeless mother, was arrested for enrolling her son in a neighboring school. Even after taking a plea deal, she was sentenced to five years in prison. McDowell will serve 1,811 more days than Huffman, but it’s no question where we have a corruption issue.

The line of what’s right is blurry.

“Jared Kushner was admitted to Harvard after his father donated $2.5 million, for instance. The line between legal and illegal, donation and bribe, is blurred,” stated Rebecca Kavanagh, a New York City public defender, in a Refinery29 article.

To me, this college scandal is a significant sign of the privilege we encounter every day. We just can’t seem to escape it. Mostly because many of us have it. At NCC, privilege feels especially inescapable. Naperville in 2016 was ranked as the wealthiest city in the Midwest. 

With every new email demanding more and more of my money for tuition, higher education has power over students and families that is inescapable. We have the right to want better for the institutions that are claiming to make us smarter and more “job-ready.”

As much as I resent Huffman and others for their roles in cheating the system, it’s not them that I blame the most. Rather, it’s the schools that continue to let this happen. The schools who continue to accept bribes and money that make people question the value of higher education at all.

That’s the real shame.

Parents, sit down and colleges, be better.