Free Beacon
Column: Operation Varsity Blues and the hypocrisy of Hollywood liberals
"Every element of the college admissions scandal, aka "Operation Varsity Blues," is fascinating.
"There are the players: the Yale dad who, implicated in a securities fraud case, tipped the feds off to the caper; a shady high school counselor turned admissions consultant; the 36-year-old Harvard grad who sold his talents for standardized testing to the highest bidder; the comely actresses from Full House and Desperate Housewives; the fashion designer; the casino magnate. Who would have thought that one of the major headlines of 2019 would be "Lori Loughlin released on bond"?
"There are the children: the social media influencer (yes this is a thing) who was told of her parents' arrest while vacationing on the yacht of a USC trustee; the mom who submitted doctored photographs to USC to portray her son as a championship pole-vaulter; the place kicker for a high school with no football team; and the rap artist from the Upper East Side who defended his mom and dad to the press while smoking a blunt.
"There are the means: paying tens of thousands of dollars to Rick Singer, Trinity '86, who bribed athletic directors and coaches, doctored student résumés, and arranged for clients to take college admittance exams alongside a "proctor" who answered the questions for them. The icing on the cake: Some payments were made to a charitable foundation so the parents could get the tax write-off. What a country.
"There is the objective: placement at a high-profile school. Why? Social signaling, status games, but also because the wage premium for a college degree has become so large that parents are apparently willing to break federal law to earn it. Not for what the students learn at college—they hardly learn anything. Loughlin's daughter, the influencer, spoke for most undergraduates when she said, "I do want the experience of game days, partying—I don't really care about school, as you guys all know." Oh, we know. Otherwise your mom wouldn't be looking for a defense attorney." . . .By Matthew Continetti
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