Posted on 03/14/2019 7:21:32 AM PDT by reaganaut1
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) today seized on headlines about rich parents cheating their children into elite universities, declaring his intent to eliminate an old tax break that lets donors contribute to colleges while their kids are being considered for admission.
Wyden announced that he'll introduce a bill in the U.S. Senate to "end the tax break for donations made to schools before or during the enrollment of children of the donor's family."
His spokesman Henry Stern tells WW this will be the first time Wyden has introduced such a bill.
"Middle-class families don't have access to this back door for their children," Wyden said in a statement. "If the wealthy want to grease the skids, they shouldn't be able to do so at the expense of American taxpayers."
Wyden's proposal comes a day after the FBI charged more than 50 people in a massive sting that nabbed wealthy parentsincluding Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlinwho allegedly paid to rig standardized tests and create fake athletic achievements so their children could get into prestigious schools like Yale and the University of Southern California.
The alleged mastermind of the fraud, William Singer, described his scheme as a creative variant on existing practices for the rich to rig the admissions system.
""If I can make the comparison, there is a front door of getting in where a student just does it on their own, and then there's a back door where people go to institutional advancement and make large donations, but they're not guaranteed in," Mr. Singer testified, according to The New York Times. "And then I created a side door that guaranteed families to get in. So that was what made it very attractive to so many families, is I created a guarantee."
(Excerpt) Read more at wweek.com ...
They are really eating their own. Colleges must be quaking in their boots. What next, require athletes to actually make it in on their grades and SAT’s?
Thet should end Affirmative Action while they are at it.
This will go Nowhere, All the Liberals do it, even at Private Elementary and High Schools.
You setup a NonProfit out of your house for the education of your Minor Child, your Non Profit makes a Charitable Contribution to the Private School you want your kid to go to, the School then grants your child an honorarium of FREE ADMISSION as a result of your TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION!!
And the best part is for last, Your NON PROFIT CHARITY is headquartered at your Personal Residence allowing you to be EXEMPT from Property Taxes.
In SoCal this is Commonplace.
Plenty of conservatives do it also.
And I hate to agree wit a D on anything, but he’s right.
I wonder how many kids of wealthy parents are taking up a seat in the best colleges even though they may be dumb as bricks
Wow, I never heard of this. Could you provide any links to newspaper stories on this type of fraud?
US Dept of Education still creating corruption and chaos, and tacitly promoting leftists and progressivism in education
shut it down.
Translation: “Quick we need to close this quick before someone looks into how Congress gets their idiot children into Yale, Harvard and Stanford”
This for our Oregon “Senator” who lives in NEW YORK. Wonder where his kids go to school...they should be near college age now.
Add that to the slow awakening by the public that you can get a better education on the internet for, basically, free. And add to that the college loan bubble that is STILL about to pop.
This will not be a good decade for our country’s universities.
WHAT???
You want the government to control what we do, who we donate to? No where in the constitution does it say that the federal government has control over education - much less donations that parents make.
This Democrat wants to control what the rich do in order to get the votes of poor people and virtue signaling liberals.
What’s the difference?
Parent’s bribing universities to get their kids admitted.
Wealthy buying wings for hospitals to get the best care.
Lobbyists bribing politicians for influence.
So, they change the rules. They just find new ways around them. It’s always about the money, power, influence.
It isn’t FRAUD and it is commonplace and LEGAL, the latest non story was about a hedgefund guy in Chicago that was outed a few years back for doing this exactly, He shut them DOWN instantly and the story disappeared in a few days
You will still be able to donate to a college that your child applies to, you just won't get a tax deduction for doing so.
In SoCal it is common for ALL political Persuasions, it just takes MONEY and Good Lawyers to set it up. This has been going on as long as I can remember and I am in my late 50’s
You’re wrong across the board.
They are not “donaating” in this instance.
They are BUYING their kids a place in the college.
Read the story in full before arguing.
What if I think someone should be able to buy your job for their kid?
Believe it or not, athletes do have to get in with decent grades. Though some sports have lower bars than others. I know of two elite athletes who switched sports once they were accepted. Each a star in their sport, they each were granted a scholarship at the U for the others sport, and then the coaches decided to switch the players. Ha ha ha. (Yeah, you guessed it, the sport with the lower grades bar was football)
Parent’s money also subsidizes Spring Breaks - I sure hope it is not college loan programs paying for this. As a former employment manager I don’t see anyone in these photos I would consider for hire. How about you??
<wHy bother? If the kid can’t hack it, he’ll flunk out soon anyway. If he’s got the smarts to do well in college, how does it hurt anyone else if his parents buy him a seat in a classroom? After all,the college can use the money for a scholarship for some poor by brainy kid.
This is what Nationalized Healthcare would be run. The elites would have ways in, you would be waiting for your number to come up.
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