POWER OF PRIVILEGE
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n his recent CNN OpEd, “Know who’s not surprised by Aunt Becky’s rule-breaking? Every teacher,” elementary school principal Gerry Brooks contends that we are all “Aunt Becky,” suggesting that we are all willing to bend the rules when we think it serves our assessment of some “best interest.” Brooks’s online rant on parenting, considering the college admission scandal, has garnered over 6 million views, but Brooks misses the point. I am not surprised over the scandal, and I do not disagree with Brooks that parents, and sometimes teachers, bend the rules. But this is not about bending the rules just because parents were concerned about the best interest of their children. This scandal is all about greed, about privilege, about the amassing of generational wealth and about image maintenance. It honestly could not be any more ironic that Lori Loughlin, or “Aunt Becky,” lied her Instagram influencer daughter’s way into the University of Southern California. Olivia Jade not only did not want to go to USC, but she had no need to go to USC; the only one who needed Lori Loughlin’s daughter to be in USC was Loughlin herself. Olivia Jade was only enrolled at USC for her parents to be able to say she was a student at USC. These parents spending thousands of dollars, one paid as much as $6.5 million, to get their children into school are not looking out for the best interest of their children; they are looking out for the notoriety that comes with saying “my child attends _____.” I have attended and worked at a variety of colleges; I have learned how the admissions process works. I
have written recommendation letters; I have spent time with recruiters and administrators, with deans who have extra influence, and, overwhelmingly, they are good people. They are honestly looking for qualified students, not falsified students. As I see it, colleges and universities have been made to look like criminals by a lot of the media coverage on this scandal. Select employees might be criminals, but the institutions themselves are arguably just as defrauded as the rest of us. It is wrong that pundits frame colleges and universities as criminally liable. I am not here to say schools are blameless; I think the institutions are villains, but of a different type of crime. They created the system that allowed this scandal to flourish, especially the notorious schools, so sought out after by the students and parents. Too many pundits are out here accusing colleges of benefiting from the scandal when in all actuality, this scandal
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College cheating scandal reveals truth about wealth in society
that system; it is still wrong, but it is gainfully different from cheating on the ACT/SAT, lying about playing a sport and fraudulently filing for tax write-offs. The scheme that William Singer, the criminal ringleader and founder of a college preparatory business called the Edge College & Career Network, perpetrated stole the slots of more qualified people. Those pushed out are direct victims of these crimes, but they are not the only victims. All students become victims. Students with learning disabilities that warrant testing accommodations are victims, as Singer encouraged parents to falsify justification for these accommodations. Student athletes are victims, as nefarious coaches reserved slots for people with fabricated
It is important to remember that getting into schools with notorious names is often a function of circumstance, privilege and connections, not talent, knowledge or competency.
flies in the face of the dubious admissions we are used to hearing about. Accepting the student of a parent who builds a new million-dollar aquatic center, state-of-the-art telescope, or physics lab is problematic, but at least under that system decades of students will benefit from one super rich kid getting to attend the school. And I am not apologizing for
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athletic resumes. As the admissions process of higher education falls under greater scrutiny, we are better able to identify the deeper crimes involved. It is high time we accept that our meritocracy is not all it seems to be; those with greater wealth need fewer merits; those with connections and legacy have more access to the right
WE DESERVE Better sk just about anyone, and they’ll tell you that teachers deserve to be paid more. Teachers are creating the future, they’ll say; we wouldn’t have doctors, lawyers or scientists if we didn’t have teachers. Politicians win elections by making big promises: I’m going to give those teachers a raise!
Design by Zoe Gordon
Low teacher pay hurts both teachers and students
extra-curricular activities is laughably low, and teachers often don’t get paid anything for the extra time they put in outside of class; many club sponsorships and other activities don’t come with stipends. But teachers sacrifice their own time–time that could be spent with their families–to give students the opportunities we feel they should have. Teachers don’t choose their career for the paycheck; we know when we get into this that we’ll never be rich. We choose this career because we love our students, and we want to give them the a new teacher is hired in at $40,724 per tools they need to be successful. The year, while a teacher with 15 years of people in charge of our salaries, who experience earns $46,164–over $14,000 promise us raises year after year, take below the national average. Florida teachers can then supplement this salary advantage of this. They don’t deliver what based on a complicated system involving they promise, because they know that we will continue to accept less than we classroom observations, student test scores, and (incredibly) their own SAT or deserve because we care about our kids. And year after year, that’s exactly what ACT scores. teachers do. Think of all your teachers; how long Low salaries mean that fewer people ago do you think they took the SAT? Well, are becoming teachers, and that almost that’s what their bonus is based on. half of the teachers leave the profession The money teachers get for certain to the Tampa Bay Times, teachers in Florida are paid an average of just over $48,000, more than $12,000 less than the national average. Florida is ranked 46th in average teacher pay, even though our cost of living is slightly above average. But these numbers are actually fairly misleading, and the real numbers are even worse. In Florida’s current system
people, the right doors and the right social passwords. This scandal isn’t about bending the rules, it is about playing by a second set. Privilege, social capital and socio-economic status will result in far more “success” than good grades, high test scores, and a well-deserved recommendation letter. In all fairness, going to Harvard or Yale, USC or Wake Forest is nice, but there is nothing wrong with going to Florida Atlantic University or Miami Dade College, Laramie Community College or Doane University. There are “Ivy League” students at community, junior and state colleges across the U.S. It is important to remember that getting into schools with notorious names is often a function of circumstance, privilege and connections, not talent, knowledge or competency. There were legal crimes committed, but there are greater offenses that will take far more work to solve, and that is where conversations should go next. Guest editorial by debate teacher Jacob Abraham; portrait by Nyan Clarke
Somewhere between the political lip service and teachers’ actual paychecks, the money teachers “deserve” gets lost. And that’s where it stops. Somewhere between the political lip service and teachers’ actual paychecks, the money teachers “deserve” gets lost. It’s a problem nationwide. Teacher salaries have increased at a much lower rate than the national average income over the last decade, and because our salaries don’t keep up with inflation, teachers are taking home less today than we were 10 years ago when compared to the cost of living. In Florida, it’s even worse. According
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within their first five years–they simply can’t afford to keep this job when other professions pay so much more. And fewer quality teachers means a lower quality of education. I don’t know how to fix the problem, but I do know that the current system is bad for everyone–everyone, that is, but the people in charge, who keep getting raises despite the fact that they fail teachers and students year after year. Guest editorial by English teacher Katherine Posada; portrait by Nyan Clarke
Editorial • College Admissions Scandal & Florida Teacher Pay 13