THIS WHOLE FLAP about parents buying their kids’ way into a “good” school is, to my Edward Bear mentality, borderline stupid.
These (in)famous parents simply didn’t follow the established purchasing-a-seat rules.
THERE IS A LONG-IN-THE TOOTH STORY in legal circles about a guy who was arrested for passing a bum check.
The check passer asked why he was arrested when his neighbor also wrote checks. Same process.
His lawyer explained his neighbor played by the rules (his check was covered); the client didn’t play by the rules.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?
The Hollywood names who got into trouble for paying a middleman (broker, if you will) to get their kids into a “name” school simply failed to follow the rules.
Had they used the same money — some reportedly paid $500,000 or more — to establish an endowment or to (for a lesser amount) fund a “chair” (of say Liberal Ways to Ignore Facts), the Big Name school probably would have welcomed at least one child with open arms, regardless of past scholastic accomplishments — or lack thereof.
Buying a child’s acceptance at any school, from “prep” upward, with endowments or other large — a relative term depending on the school’s real or self-perceived reputation — donation is just another purchase. An applicant’s scholastic ability is determined by the donor’s checkbook.
THE GOVERNMENT DOES IT
Why should a private individual be charged with a crime when the U.S. government does the same thing. The government calls it “Affirmative Action” and the schools know it means “assure diversity” — regardless of scholastic qualifications. The less than generous call this "reverse discrimination."
The Feds have a quota system requiring schools that receive federal dollars — for anything — to accept some students with low scholastic abilities.
When the Feds do that the U.S. taxpayer is preventing a qualified person from being admitted to a school so an underachiever can be accommodated.
Federal money — taxpayer money — BUYS a place for a student who lacks the scholastic ability to fully benefit from the available education.
SPORTS SCHOLARSHIPS
Admittedly, sports — and the athletes who play them — can bring in “Big Bucks” to a school.
Schools are a business; there are bills to pay.
The student athletes are unpaid (by the school, in any event) laborers, risking life and limb for a possible lucrative pro career.
In order for a school to recruit the top jocks, they need to offer incentives such as a “full ride” for however many years the athlete is allowed to perform.
Donors foot the bill for these athletes, even the rare ones on an academic scholarship.
If a donor has a scholastically challenged child, a word to the right administrator and the school most likely will find a place for the donor’s offspring. The donor will, after all, also be paying tuition and incidentals for his or her child.
RIGHT WAY, WRONG WAY
As with the check writers, there is a “right” (acceptable) way to bribe a student’s way into school, and a “wrong” (not acceptable) way to make the same bribe — for, bottom line, in most cases that’s what it is: a bribe.
The (in)famous Hollywood “names” simply failed to play the game according to the establishment’s rules. The establishment was insulted and the Hollywood denizens will be chastised by the establishment’s legal system.
Using a middleman to arrange for a 100 pound weakling to “win” a scholarship as a lineman on the school’s football team is a tad suspicious.
Not cricket, ol’ chap.
ALWAYS REMEMBER AND NEVER FORGET
It is not what you do, but how you do it.
They could have achieved the same results, and the school’s might have received more money (no middleman’s commission), had the donors endowed the school or at least endowed a chair. A new wing or school would have guaranteed their children’s children admission.
Image at right: Pat Harrington Jr.
Credit: CBS/Photofest
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