Why Is California All Over the College Admissions Scandal?

California differs from the East Coast and some areas of the South in the lack of family legacy, nobody cares what your last name is or who your grandparents are. "Class" doesn't really exist, only performance and wealth, and since those are fleeting and these parents may lack "legacy admissions" (where children of alumni have an advantage) then bribery is the only way in. I feel sorry for the children of parents who, although caring, are incredibly shallow and self-entitled.

“California is an epicenter of enormous wealth...." California is also the co-epicenter of the left wing liberal political machine, New York being the other co-epicenter and, coincidentally, also of "enormous wealth." Yet, CA and NY liberal politicians are always claiming to "hear the cry for the poor." The silence of the hypicrocy is deafening.

This is a microcosm of a problem that has re-emerged in American society and exported to the rest of the world: Wealth entitles privilege in the public and private sector. It is second coming of the mythical "gilded age". Privatization of public services and resources offered by the government becomes a top priority and education is near the top of the list. It is true that most of the elite, higher educational institutions in this country may be private but they have benefited from public financing and therefore are subject to governmental regulation. Nothing interferes with the privileges of wealth more than governmental regulation. If these so-called private institutions were "free" of governmental regulation then admission would be subject to market conditions and the "natural order of capitalism" of wealth entitles privilege would prevail.

Thank you, Jill Cowan, for thinking to call Doug Haynes. He nailed it on two counts: 1. The real cost of this scandal is the erosion of trust in higher education. 2. Good education takes place across a range of schools. The belief in the networks and cachet provided by elite universities has gotten way out of hand. I would add a third point. If we depend on only the small number of elite schools for our future leaders and STEM workers, we won't have many people to choose from. It was the land-grant system that made American education great, not the Ivies.

If you walk around a campus many structures will have the name of a family associated. Their children and grand children normally attend such institutions and there is always controversy because the college may need those funds to survive. Can you imagine giving a failing grade to a student whose parents donated millions? I find it interesting about the downward mobility and wealth inequality exasperating the problems. I agree actually as we see more concentrations of wealth and poverty we are having massive corruption problems.

There is nothing new here, except they were caught. The purchasing of admissions to college has been going on for as long as colleges have existed.