We are constantly told that this country is a meritocracy.
Actress Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin are among dozens charged in a nationwide college entrance exam scandal, according to court documents filed in Boston on Tuesday.
Several NCAA D-1 college coaches have also been charged in the scandal.
Documents show those indicted allegedly paid millions in bribes to get their children into elite colleges. Those colleges include Yale, Stanford and the University of Southern California.
Loughlin and husband, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 to USC in exchange for having their two daughters designated as recruits to the college's crew team — even though they did not participate in crew — thereby guaranteeing their admission in the college, according to documents. — www.hollywoodreporter.com/...
The charging documents allege a consultant “controlled” a SAT test center and offered to correct a students’ answers after she had taken the test. Several coaches are alleged to have offered positions on athletic teams to improve a students’ chance of acceptance.
Mr. Singer instructed at least one parent, Mr. McGlashan, the partner at TPG [a private equity firm], to claim that his son had learning disabilities in order to gain extended time for him to take his college entrance exam alone, over two days instead of one, according to court documents.
The government said that Mr. McGlashan’s son was told to take the exam at one of two test centers where Mr. Singer worked with test administrators who had been bribed to allow students to cheat — one in Houston and one in West Hollywood. And Mr. Singer told Mr. McGlashan to fabricate a reason, such as a wedding, for why their children would need to take the test in one of those locations. [...]
When Mr. Singer explained the scheme last June to Gordon R. Caplan, co-chairman of the global law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Mr. Caplan laughed and said, “And it works?” according to a transcript of a recorded phone conversation between the two men captured in a court-authorized wiretap.
— www.nytimes.com/...
Of course, there are other wealthy people who appear to have bought their way into elite colleges. This list includes Jared Kushner.
“There was no way anybody in the administrative office of the school thought he would on the merits get into Harvard,” a former official at The Frisch School in Paramus, New Jersey, told me. “His GPA did not warrant it, his SAT scores did not warrant it. We thought for sure, there was no way this was going to happen. Then, lo and behold, Jared was accepted. It was a little bit disappointing because there were at the time other kids we thought should really get in on the merits, and they did not.” [...]
While looking into Kushner’s taxes, though, federal authorities had subpoenaed records of his charitable giving. I learned that in 1998, when Jared was attending The Frisch School and starting to look at colleges, his father had pledged $2.5 million to Harvard, to be paid in annual installments of $250,000. Charles Kushner also visited Neil Rudenstine, then Harvard president, and discussed funding a scholarship program for low- and middle-income students. — www.propublica.org/...
This isn’t a meritocracy, it’s a rigged system.
PS. Most of the media is focusing on the celebrities whose names are recognizable, but the larger group is wealthy “business leaders”.
— @subirgrewal | Cross-posted to Bankers4Bernie.com & TheProgressiveWing.com