Higher education and education in general in America are suffering from problems that are a whole lot larger than whether Timmy from Fox Run (SAT: 1600, LaCrosse recruit, legacy admit) or Ja’von from Compton (SAT: 1590, Track & Field star, no family connection) get to claim a coveted spot at Harvard.
The whole debate is, in the end, zero-sum and depressing. For some reason, the fact that the rejected candidate will simply go to some other Ivy League-caliber school and do just fine in life doesn’t seem to register.
But instead of arguing over how to divide the pie, why don’t we make a bigger pie?
Here’s a modest proposal. Pass a bill to confiscate half of Harvard’s endowment (an eye-watering $53 billion) and use it to build a new Harvard in… I don’t know, Kansas City?
That was basically Cornelius Vanderbilt’s idea, when he gave $1 million to establish the university in Nashville that bears his name. One of the only philanthropic gifts of his life. As ruthless and cutthroat as he was, he recognized the value of education, and the value of placing a top-tier university in the South to promote national integration.
https://www.vanderbilt.edu/about/history/