Bribes symptom of bigger problem

Just over a week ago, the United States Department of Justice revealed they would be charging around 50 people based on allegations of wealthy parents bribing their children’s way into top universities.

The most surprising thing about this news isn’t the fact that it happened, but the surprise people have been displaying over the allegations. It appears people were more unaware of the disparity in the elite university system than I would have assumed.

I find this news not at all surprising. As a first generation college student, I have learned many valuable lessons, but the two most important have been life is about who know and how much money you have.

If anything, these allegations simply bring a light to the disparity in not just elite universities, but all universities. The admissions process to any university presents many issues for people of color, lower income students and first generation students, but none of this is new information.

When the admissions process is broken down from beginning to end, a small fortune is spent in simply trying to apply to a college that can still then reject you. From the cost of the SAT to application fees, all of these things may seem unnoticeable to people who have the privilege of not worrying about resources for their education, but for others this can be the line between themselves and a college education.

This scandal comes only months after the scandal surrounding Harvard allegedly discriminating against Asian-American students in their admissions process. All these allegations have done is confirm something that is already known to be true, elite universities are overrun with rich, white students.

Not only are these universities lacking in racial diversity, they’re lacking in economic diversity with only three percent of that nation's elite universities being compiled of low income students.

This highlights a larger and much uglier picture of the American education system: in this system education is viewed as a privilege rather than a fundamental human right. This stems from more than the people of the one percent buying their childrens way into college, but can be traced from the beginning of the American education process.

The American education system is one that’s based around elitism and privilege, and yet we as a republic do nothing to acknowledge this disparity in our own education system. We ignore the fact that the children of lower income families or people of color are denied access to fair and equal education.

There are people of color sitting in jail for lying about their home addresses to allow their children to go to better schools than what is offered for where they reside. Gerrymandering plays a huge role in the American education system and it is time that we as a society ask ourselves why we’ve been allowing this for so long and fix it.

As long as we continue to ignore these issues, we will remain stuck in this vicious cycle and should expect to see more scandals like these. It is our responsibility to make sure that all people have access to education and so far we have failed the people in our own communities.