That higher education has become a transnational exchange of money for credentials is nothing new. The new admissions fraud case involving actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman just made it more obvious.
The real problem isn’t just that money could buy admission, but that attending college is often no longer about gaining an education at all.
For the parents involved in this alleged scheme, that was obvious. They planned out a college career in which their kids would not have to learn anything. Instead of employing extra tutors or paying for classes and sports lessons, the parents faked it all: paid test-takers and faked claims of athletic involvement. Given that approach, it also doesn’t seem like the parents expected their kids to get much out of college, aside from an affiliation and a diploma.
And why should they? The idea that the most valuable part of college is the diploma and the university logo is increasingly taken for granted. Nor is it limited to the parents now facing federal racketeering charges. Indeed, that’s the clear subtext of the oft-repeated idea that the reason to go to college is that, without a degree, you wont get a job. Actually learning something from all those credit hours is an afterthought.
That approach to education spills over to students. Just ask any number of undergraduates if they actually did the assigned readings for class. The answer will often be no. Asked why, many will respond that the readings aren’t necessary to pass, or even to get an A.
When you pay for college, you are ideally paying for the opportunity to learn and be taught, not for a piece of paper that says you did those things. That students would pass classes or expect to graduate without learning or even bothering to engage with the materials being taught renders even the most prestigious colleges and universities little more than glorified credential mills. The cheating scandal merely reflected an extreme version of this, albeit applied to admissions and not graduation.
The outrage directed at the parents involved in the Varsity Blues scandal is well deserved. But that outrage must not allow us to look past the deep flaws in much of American higher education. After all, would parents have been so quick to get their kids into schools if they had thought they would have been expected to actually learn something?
