The College Cheating Scheme and the Broken Mirror of Philanthropy
You would be hard-pressed to pick up a newspaper, scroll through an online media platform, or check social media without being bombarded with stories on the U.S. college admissions scandal. It’s been fodder for daytime and late-night television, grist for comedic satire, and a source of anger and frustration.
For millions of students who have gone out of their way to prove, often to a skeptical and disbelieving audience, that they earned their spot on campus, the scandal is a hard slap in the face. While some buy their way into college, others—especially students of color—have paid in blood, sweat, and tears.
Many people are wondering how those with so much would work so hard to game a system to which they were already advantaged. Yet we see this phenomenon playing out every day in many sectors, including the one in which I work—philanthropy.
Often, the people who enter philanthropy do so to help others. They espouse lofty goals of wanting to advance economic, racial, social, and climate justice. Here’s the problem: funders, like many others, often fail to see how their own behavior contributes to injustice. They often fail to do their own inner work. Most of the time they’re only comfortable with change that doesn’t compromise their positions of power.
Those managing philanthropic resources, including those who determine the process for accessing those resources, all too often lack deep relationships with the communities closest to the pain of social, racial, and economic isolation. This is evident when funders tell the community what it needs rather than listening to the community and acting on its recommendations.
While acting as good stewards of resources, funders can become gatekeepers of wealth—wealth accumulated off the backs of Indigenous and enslaved people, and their descendants. The college cheating scandal is disappointing—but it is just the latest CONTINUE READING: The College Cheating Scheme and the Broken Mirror of Philanthropy | Schott Foundation for Public Education