US college-admissions corruption

We've all long suspected that the rich and the privileged have a special advantage when it comes to getting their own kids into good universities. AP News gives us a glimpse of how deep the rabbit hole goes, and in a federal sting that has ensnared the powerful, including people like celebrated actress Felicity Huffman ("Transamerica"), a significant vein of corruption has now been exposed, and the explosion promises to damage the reputations of many good schools, from Yale to my alma mater, Georgetown.

BOSTON (AP) — Fifty people, including Hollywood stars Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, were charged Tuesday in a scheme in which wealthy parents allegedly bribed college coaches and other insiders to get their children into some of the nation’s most elite schools.

Federal authorities called it the biggest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department, with the parents accused of paying an estimated $25 million in bribes.

“These parents are a catalog of wealth and privilege,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said in announcing the results of an investigation code-named Operation Varsity Blues.

The scandal is certain to inflame longstanding complaints that children of the wealthy and well-connected have the inside track in college admissions — sometimes through big, timely donations from their parents — and that privilege begets privilege.

At least nine athletic coaches and 33 parents, many of them prominent in law, finance or business, were among those charged. Dozens, including Huffman, were arrested by midday.

The coaches worked at such schools as Yale, Stanford, Georgetown, Wake Forest, the University of Texas, the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles. A former Yale soccer coach pleaded guilty and helped build the case against others.

Punishment could mean up to twenty years in prison.