Today’s News Outrage revolves around a bunch of rich folk who spent a *lot* of money to do some goofy things to get their offspring into expensive “elite” schools like Harvard and Yale. Part of the News Outrage today included a piece I heard on NPR where predictably someone bemoaned how unfair it was that rich people were getting into Yale while poor people weren’t and how even more unfair it was that some rich people were essentially bribing their kids way in.
Got me thinking: what would actually be fair?
Some things I’m sure we can all agree on:
1: You (as in prospective student) do not have the *right* to have a college experience provided to you.
2: You *definitely* don’t have the right to get into, say, Yale. They can only stuff just so many kids in the door.
So, who gets in?
For starters, my opinion is “who cares?” Because do you *really* get a better education at Yale than at State U? There is prestige, which may or may not prove helpful in your job hunt, but if you gt the degree but not the actual education, your employer is going to toss you out on your ear.
For seconds: what is the function of a place like Yale? it is two fold… to educate, and to stay in business. Yale, after all, is a *business.* So… how bout these for ground rules for admission to one of these “elite” schools (note: the percentages given are mere hand-waving, feel free to think of them bigger or smaller):
1: Each new class of freshmen will be composed of a maximum of 25% non-US citizens.
2: Of the US citizen students, a minimum of 25% will be composed of students who receive full ride scholarships based on nothing except their academic record. No attention will be devoted to their extra-curricular activities, their athletic achievements, their family situations, their ethnicities, genders, etc. Just their grades and test scores. The only extras to be examined will be those that deal *directly* with their chosen fields of study… patents they’ve earned, extra courses they may have taken, etc. These are students who have proven excellence in their field of study. Nobody cares if the kid training to be a brain surgeon plays the flute really well or spends his summers in Africa building solar farms or can kick a ball into a goal.
3: Of the US students, 50% will be composed of students who have earned their way in academically *and* can pay the tuition.
4: Of the US students, a *maximum* of 25% will be composed of those students who have *not* academically earned their place… but their parents are willing to pay. Bribery is not allowed; instead, there will be *auctions.* You bid ten grand? Good luck. You bid half a million? Chances are looking good!
5: As the foreign students are strictly limited in number now, seventy-five percent of the openings will be made available via auction. That Saudi prince wants his drooling idiot-child kid in, and is willing to spend ten million per year to do it? Great! That’ll pay a bunch of the scholarships for the poor, smart, capable US kids.
Seems to me that anybody providing a good or service that you do not have a right to has the right to charge whatever the frak he wants for it. So, why not abandon the need for bribery and open the books up to transparency, and allow rich folk to buy their way in? By them doing so they will be making it a whole lot easier for a whole lot of people who otherwise couldn’t afford to get in.
There is a much bigger demand for elite schools than there is a supply. This means that on the whole the price goes up, but people are screaming about the cost, and the debt they will get thrown into. Well… why not let those who are willing to spend *stupid* sums of money do so?
Vaguely related:
Here are students who should be supported neither by taxpayers nor by their families, lil’ leftist terrorists trying to destroy lives because someone has a different opinion than them.
