After the recent college cheating scandal, where many celebrities have been caught paying for their children to get accepted into the most elite universities through having their children take on fake athlete personas, many have become outraged over the disparity and greed shown by the elite; "donating" almost "6.5 million dollars" to the fake charity that would allow the cheating to occur at times, these parents redefined the extent to which "wanting the best" for their children lies. The problem of the issue isn't as much as the abuse of money and/or fame, but rather the exploitation of the college acceptance system: for every kid that was photo-shopped onto the body of an elite athlete and accepted, there was a kid denied who had studied and strived to gain opportunities all throughout their upbringing. It's a question of effort over ethics.

If every parent was to do so, where would our morals lie? In college labels? In socioeconomic class?

Would earning a college degree mean anything if to get there was a road paved by a web of lies?

Already before, there was an underlying disparity within the education system: a great further read into this would be "And Still We Rise" by the great journalist, Miles Corwin. I had the pleasure of reading this book earlier this year, detailing the education system and lives of a group of inner city kids within California; deprived of usable textbooks and encouraged teachers, these kids were fed into a life of crime in order to keep themselves or their families afloat. Time after time, the book detailed the failing of the education system in providing the opportunities for their children to fall in love with learning, when from the beginning, it fails to provide. This was only one example of a school and their children; where the students are at times homeless and unable to pay for the smallest of school supplies. Currently, there are schools all around the nation that match, or remain in a worse state, than the one mentioned in Corwin's book: consider schools in Detroit, whose walls are covered in mold with exposed brick and in the Bronx, where broken textbooks and desks lie unfixed for decades. Still, these kids strive to gain an education and get into college; the sad truth is that some are able to make it out and become great, some are able to make a decent education, but some remain trapped.

Now consider an elite white family; able to dish out millions in cutting corners into getting into any college they so desire. Sure, I understand it is for the betterment of their children, but in the end, it is an opportunity taken away from someone who couldn't have had as much resources as given and lie unused by these children.

This scandal only highlights the importance of the existence of affirmative action, because without it, money and status would play a greater role in determining post high school success; paving jobs and future opportunities. Although these parents came from a good place in order to do something good for their children, they forget the greed and selfishness behind their act.

A very important lesson in life I've learned to realize is that you can only reap what you sow; for these parents to steal others' harvests and pose a new persona capable of reaching these higher universities, they are taking away from those unable to reach as high as easily and only encouraging the gap of coming from wealth and poverty to grow. I am a great believer in the saying that anyone could become anything if they work hard enough for it; I can only hope that after this scandal, the competitive playing field for vying into colleges can finally become more leveled.