Higher education is what prepares our kids to become successful in their own life, get a good-paying job and start a promising career and life. This is mainly because today’s US Economy is knowledge-based and in that economy, getting a good-paying job without a college degree is difficult. The current US economy is not manufacturing-based anymore. When it comes to higher education, most Americans would like to see our colleges affordable, and the admission process is fair for our kids.
First, let’s talk about affordability. In Public Universities, a 4-Year In-State degree cost is around $100,000 and a 4-Year Out-of-State will be a little less than $200,000. If you want to get a degree from a “reputed” Private Top Tier University or Ivy league, the cost ranges between $200,000 and $ 250,000. Most of us don’t have the money to Pay all these out of pocket. So we take a loan and adding up all the interest this can reach up to $300,000. If you have two kids, then double this. Now let’s see how Government will help. If your family has an adjusted gross income of $26,000 or less you get Pell Grant funding. if it’s between $26,000 and 60,000 you get some, and if it’s above you get none. That means most of the middle-class people in the united states won’t get government help / Pell Grants.
All this will put you and your Kid deep Debt in addition to the home mortgage you never paid off so far Now, If your kid needs to get a good-paying job, they have to get a Masters degree too. That will add another 100K-$150k to this.
For Americans, the cost to get a degree increased by more than 25% in the last 10 years and tripled in the last 30 years. What’s driving this? It is mostly due to the increasing cost of technology, high-end student facilities/amenities cost including accommodation and lack of Government funding, and Lack of regulations to control all this. . One thing Government can do is to make the Education system affordable by removing the clutches of corporate America from our education system. That will bring down the overall cost. Universities spend most of their money on Outsourced IT services and facility Management. Also IT companies should not be making huge Profits for the software and services they provide to Universities. That will be a good start in my opinion.
Now on the Fairness in college admissions, As per a USA Today poll, 80% of the American people think that the existing college admission process is unfair and rigged, Under 20% of Americans think that it is Fair. Please check the CNBC article below on the USA Today poll
That 20% who agree that the current education system is fair ought to be the rich or well-connected people who enjoy the current provisions in the education system which gives their kids a clear advantage over others to get into a top university. That includes participating in sports no one else could afford to play, Special quotas given to the children of Alumni, or From families which donated large sums of money to a university, or Children of political leaders who would do quid pro quos for their kid’s admissions.
The Top tier university admissions, mainly the ivy league admissions which are based on huge contributions and political connections are creating a group of graduates who are worst of the best, not best of the best. But being graduating from the same institution, their degrees will have the same Glamour and value as a fellow merit-based kid who worked hard to earn that degree. So, these rich graduates can come into the mainstream of politics and lawmaking and make sure that the privileges to the top 5% currently hold stays intact. That’s the whole reason the system is not changing.
Also, I have read that the wealthy kids even get career directions from admission consultants starting very early in their high school to get into a Top tier Universities. These grooming consultants charge thousands of Dollars and guide the kids all along their high school career, instructing them which AP courses they should take, what loophole they should use like participating in programs to show compassion to the poor, community services, playing special sports no one can afford, etc. it’s a big show off with No genuinely at all.
I am including a CNN article below what Wealthy parents do to get their Kids into Elite colleges
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/success/college-admissions-parents/index.html
Among these, what will be the chances of a self-guided poor/middle-class kid who gets a perfect score in ACT/SAT exams and many other national-level achievements even with his/her Parents ready to go bankrupt themselves to pay for their college tuition?
Congress can change this situation easily by cutting Federal funding to these universities and ivy league colleges if they permit Backdoor admissions. When I did some internet research, I learned that all these ivy league colleges get around $500 million in federal funding annually. That’s your tax money. In the wake of the College Admission Scandal, Democratic Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) tried to do a baby step by introducing College Admissions Fairness Act which will End Tax Breaks for Donations that Influences College Admissions. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) swiftly opposed the bill, calling it “misguided” and “drastic.” In summary, This bill never passed
I am quoting the senator below on his bill and what it intended and the finance.state.gov on the bill details.
“While middle-class families are pinching pennies to pay tuition and graduates are buried under tens of thousands of dollars in student debt, wealthy families are greasing the skids to get their children into elite schools on the backs of those same families and graduates. It’s absurd that the tax code subsidizes the top 1% buying their way into school,” Wyden said. “Colleges and universities would be able to preserve the tax deductibility of all donations if they simply bar their consideration in admissions decisions. It’s ‘one and done’—implement a policy and you’re in compliance.”
I am 100% sure that there was an elite college lobby behind this, and It was shocking that a small step like this could not be passed in Senate. So Instead of taking these baby steps, what government should do is to Create 5 National level colleges completely funded by the federal government, and admission criteria to those colleges will be 100% merit-based. The students who get into those colleges should be the best of the best academically and intellectually. Money, pollical connections or athletics should have no play in the admission to those colleges. Those colleges should have state-of-the-art equipment and those colleges should have the best Faculty. The money to fund these can be easily found by taxing the ultra-Wealthy who are not currently paying their fair share either because the current tax system benefits them to do so or they know how to work around the tax system. This will bring down the popularity of all those For-Profit ivy League elite colleges.
None of us want the dirty donations to the educational intuitions. We know that these wealthy people are giving that money so that your family gets back door admissions for generations to come to that college. You are cheating our kids and taking away their opportunities to become something in life.
Take the Koch Family for example. This family is one of the wealthiest families in the united states. Every one of them went to MIT or Harvard. Fred C. Koch, Frederick R. Koch, Charles Koch, David Koch, Bill Koch all of them.
Same with the Trump family. They all picked the University of Pennsylvania which is also another Top Ivy League, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump, Tiffany trump all of them.
But Bush Family liked Yale for three generations.
Biden kids liked the University of Pennsylvania (Ivy League) except Hunter Biden picked Yale University for a change.
Mike Pence Preferred One Kid in Yale and the Other Kid in Harvard.
All Four of Al Gore’s kids went to Harvard mainly to learn how the imminent global warming can be prevented. When at Harvard, His son Al Gore III who was a drug addict made his father proud by driving an environment-friendly Hybrid car at 100mph under the influence of Marijuana with five other prescription drugs like Valium, Xanax, Vicodin, Adderall, and Soma in possession with no prescriptions. It was not the first time for the little Gore. He was arrested twice before for the possession of Marijuana and Driving under the influence. If that was an African American Kid, he would have been behind bars for decades for this type of crime or maybe even get shot by the cops on the scene. Anyway, after all these DUI arrests, Al Gore kid got admitted to the Columbia Universities (Ivy League) prestigious MBA Program which is one of the most competitive in the world. Bernie Sanders should check with father Gore to figure out how someone can be kept out of prison for possession of Marijuana. Looks like he has that figured it all out how to be successful even after getting caught three times.
Jared Kushner who is the son-in-law of the former president Donald Trump got admitted to Harvard at the same time his Father Charles Kushner donated 2.5 million to Harvard. What a wonderful coincidence. One of Jared’s former School Officials told Vogue Magazine that he didn’t have merit or GPA / SAT scores to get admitted to Harvard. BTW the father Kushner was convicted in 2005 of tax evasion, making illegal campaign donations, and witness tampering. He was in jail since then but pardoned by President Trump last year and is now a free man.
This admission trend makes me think that Race and Gene Superiority exist in this world. But this won’t convince me without seeing their academic merits which qualified them to get into these universities.
A FiveThirtyEight article based on a pew research polling survey found that most Americans want Merit-based college admissions. Please see the fivethirtyeight.com article below
At the same time, I also believe that affirmative action in colleges should stay because it gives an opportunity for students from underprivileged backgrounds to get a quality education.
Along with all this, let me also include an issue that bothered me to a great extent. This has to do with who I am. I am an Indian American and an Asian – American and I am proud of both. For the people who do not know, India is in Asia along with 47 other countries and Asia is the largest continent in the world. So you can imagine how many Asian Americans will be in this country. Some years back two Asian students who had very high academic qualifications accused Harvard of discriminating against them in the admissions policy. They went to court and Court ruled against them. The federal judge, Allison D. Burroughs agreed with Harvard admissions officers who found that these Asian American kids did not possess the personal qualities that Harvard is looking for at the same rate as the white applicants, even though they were academically qualified to get into Harvard. These personal qualities included Courage, Kindness, Likability which the white applicants had and so they got Harvard admissions over these poor Asian American kids.
Make a note that past Criminal history may also be one of the personal qualities Gore kid included along with possessing Courage, Kindness, Likability to get admission to this Harvard University and later into Columbia.
I am including the Forbes article here for an in-depth read how those Asian American kids lost their case against Harvard
It’s a fact that these Elite Ivy Leagues discriminate against Asian -Americans even though they have the perfect score and merits and every other qualifying criteria. But they all intentionally discriminate against the Asian kids citing it will affect the diversity of the institution. Please see the Guardian article below.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/24/why-are-so-many-missing-out-on-ivy-league-schools
By considering, Courage, Kindness and overall Likability as qualifying components, I think what these people are looking for is an overall appearance, beauty, handsomeness, and nice eyes in an engineering Candidate, something similar to what a movie director would consider in one of his/her auditions. If that’s what the deal is, Harvard should not touch a dime from the federal aid because that’s also the taxpayer money from the Asian American families which lack the impressive looks. We can forgive you for doing the shady backdoor admissions. But you cannot demean us on how we look using our own money.
Harvard is the same college that had a principal called Lawrence Lowell who put quotas for Jewish admissions because he said: “Jewish students would ‘ruin the college’ by causing elite Protestant students to attend other schools”. He justified that policy by saying limiting the Jewish population would help eliminate anti-Semitism. He is the guy who attempted to restore Harvard’s traditional demographics by requiring applicants to demonstrate “character”. He also expelled all black students from Harvard Yard. His reasoning was if the Colored people lived along with white people, it will increase the prejudice against colored so all colored were expelled in “good faith”. Lowell also formed the “Secret Court of 1920” to purge gay students from Harvard. Please read the crimson link below from where I read about Harvard’s Antisemitic, Racist. homophobic past.
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2015/3/26/retrospection-president-lowells-quotas/
In my opinion, Similarly, The Judge who ruled against the Asian kids should have also mentioned that Harvard admissions officers might have done the Asian kids a big favor by turning down their applications in “Good faith” to avoid the increasing hate crimes against Asians during Trump presidency. That way Harvard’s legacy will be kept intact when it comes to the “Character” and “Good Faith” deeds.
This is the same Harvard who gave Winston Churchill an honorary Doctorate in 1943 the same year his policies caused Bengal Famine which killed 3 million Indians. When he learned about deaths in famine due to food shortage he created, in his defense he said “Indians breed like rabbits” and so it was fine. He also called Indians “beastly people with a beastly religion”. For Indians, Adolf Hitler was a saint when compared to Winston Churchill. He was the most Racist guy who even recommended using Chemical Weapons against the masses. This makes me the question the credibility of this very institution which discriminates against Asian kids even in this day and age.
Please read the Harvard Magazine article below on Harvard’s invitation to Churchill to award him the honorary degree.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/churchill-18
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/29/asia/churchill-bengal-famine-intl-scli-gbr/index.html4
Another ivy league College, Princeton’s President Christopher Eisgruber recently announced his university is systematically racist and also racism and oppression “persist at Princeton” and that this is “sometimes by conscious intention.” This is not 100 years back. This is now. This is a university that collects $300 million annually in Federal Funding and aid, your taxpayer money.
Now let’s talk about K-12 education. About 60% of the students who go to the Ivy League colleges in the United States including Harvard are from our Public School system. The rest of the 40 percent is from private or parochial school systems means mostly wealthy kids from privileged backgrounds. When Ivy Leagues like Harvard are curbing the qualified Asian American students by citing the diversity reasons, Have they ever thought about whether diversity exists in the Public school system from where they are getting more than 60% of their students? School districts in the United States have white-dominated affluent neighborhood schools with high ratings and the diverse minority-dominated (mostly black and Hispanic) poor neighborhood schools with very low ratings. The other schools get rated average, below and above average based on diversity and income levels that exist in those school neighborhoods. Few main websites that rate the American public school system are .greatschools.org and .niche. The home prices in highly rated school neighborhoods are very high and home prices decline when you move to the other parts of the country based on the school rating. Home prices will be the lowest in the low-income minority neighborhoods where you have the most diverse schools. These websites have become a source for the dog whistles the realtors use to influence the homebuyers. The realtors will list the schools in the neighborhood where they are selling a home and reference the rating on “greatschools.org” or Niche.com which will give you the details on how good or bad the school . This translates to the quality of neighborhoods. What these realtors mean is to check this school rating site to learn how white, Black, or Hispanic the neighborhood is, How rich or poor it is, median household income in the area, etc. If the school has a low rating on the site, it will show the percentage of minority population mainly black and Hispanic, how many kids use the free lunch, etc, These realtors are using our kids to divide us within society based on the race and income.
In the United States, the overall grade rating for a school and the diversity ratings are inversely proportional. For example, you search on “Most Diverse Public middle schools in United states Niche”, out of the first 25 most diverse schools, None had an A+ rating. Only 2 have at least an A rating. Most are C and B ratings with two A- ratings.
Including the niche search result below.
https://www.niche.com/k12/search/most-diverse-public-middle-schools/
So Bottom line is, The public School System in this country Restricts a person of color with low income from sending their kids to good schools. Anyway, you spin it, That’s a reality.
My mother worked as an educator for over 35 years in India. She started in teaching, then became the principal of the largest girls school in Asia, and also worked as an AEO (Assistant educational officer) for a large school district. She served as the Principal of Cotton hill Government Higher Secondary School in the late 1900’s and early 2000s and the school had around 6000 students at that time. Admission to this school is without an entrance test, screening test and it cost Rs.2 which is one penny USD to apply. Education in this school is free for anyone who applies regardless of where they are located in the City and this 170-year-old Government school was ranked one of the best schools in the City for decades until the globalization kicked off the private school frenzy in India. My mother told me that they never used to separate the kids based on their grades and this allowed the students to compete instead of getting marginalized. As per her, Academics is like any other sport where you need competition to thrive. She said that as teachers they always promoted students to help other students not only in academics, even encouraging students to share lunch and books with the underprivileged kids from poor backgrounds. My sister also studied in that school. So when I explained to her how the school system is segregated here in the United States, she could not believe that this can happen in a country like the United States in this day and age. My mother did not have a Ph.D. or master’s like the Educators in this country. She only had a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, some goodwill and common sense to run an institution that gave equal opportunity to all the kids to succeed.
by Hari Ramachandran