https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/felicity-huffman-breaks-silence-on-varsity-blues-college-admission-scandal-arrest/ar-AA1kQHxc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varsity_Blues_scandal

Here is what Felicity Huffman had to say about buying her child a SAT score:

“It felt like I had to give my daughter a chance at a future,” Huffman said. “And so it was sort of like my daughter’s future, which meant I had to break the law.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/felicity-huffman-breaks-silence-on-varsity-blues-college-admission-scandal-arrest/ar-AA1kQHxc

This is complete nonsense. I have been involved in colleges and universities for decades. There are a myriad of college and university choices if you don’t get your first pick and doing poorly on an admissions test like the SAT and ACT does not automatically doom you to a life in salt mine. It is very common for students to study guide books and take classes to improve their test taking and then re-take the test. That is exactly what a good mother would have recommended to her daughter. Maybe stay out a year, work and accumulate some hours at a local college while prepping for a second test score.

Just to test the water on SAT remedies, I ran a search for SAT test preparation and got 719,000 hits. There are alternatives to cheating.

I entitled this “A Truly Bad Mother.” What did I mean? Instead of teaching her daughter to compete successfully or do what was right, she taught her that money and privilege rule – that if the subject if important enough breaking the law is okay. She taught her that working hard for your goals is unnecessary and that the hard work and achievements of those outside their class matter not at all. That’s a bad mother.

The “Varsity Blues” scandal demonstrates a moral vacuity and ethical stupidity among many in American’s ruling class. Thirty three sets of parents were involved in this particular atrocity. But that raises the question of how many parents are out there paying to cheat their children’s way into college? And don’t get me started about the hideously evil practice of legacy admissions where ability and achievements aren’t even considered. Admitting students to an ivy league school solely because one of their parents attended is more like the divine right of kings as opposed to any form of democratic merit. No school that commits this horror should get a dime of taxpayers money. But this is just another way the game is rigged in favor of the wealthy and well placed.

If you look at Felicity Huffman’s wikipedia page, you will discover a life of incredible privilege, the very finest schools and a solid and secure membership in America’s elite families dating back generations. We like to pretend we live in a classless society but that is not true. As of this writing, I am researching for an article on the hubris of Stockton Rush, another member of America’s elite ruling families. So, it is here.

I call them the no-fault class because while they can fail, they can commit crimes, (lots of crimes and very serious ones), be incredibly drug addicted, be obviously stupid or mentally challenged and yet there is always a second chance, another nice place for them to live, another source of money for them to use and an almost infinite supply of family friends and rescuers. Their mistakes are not important. When I was a young man, one of the members of this class, murdered his girl friend in a fit of rage beating her skull in with a hammer. But never fear, he had many powerful friends and under the battle cry (I kid you not) of “Let’s not destroy two lives here,” he did not go to prison and after he did a stint of probation I found an article about him living on a tropical island with a local girlfriend.

What should we do? First we should have a national, an American standard for admission to colleges and universities. Merit should be the first consideration. After merit we should consider other factors. But merit must be first. And while that would be good and important, it is not enough.

The practice in the United States of local financing for schools mean that many students are disadvantaged simply by geography. Where you live should not be a determinate of academic success any more than it determines the quality of air, food and water. But that is the case all over the United States. We can do better than this.

In our current political system, reining in the unfair advantages of wealth and privilege is simply not going to happen. They own most of this place. So, work hard, follow the rules and live as a good citizen of the United States. This nation has a culture that very often rewards work and achievement. But even if work and achievement are not fairly rewarded, that is the way good Americans live their lives.

James Alan Pilant