It’s no secret that the rich have an outsized role in Ivy League colleges, both as students and alumni. But a new study, by a group of Harvard-based economists, documents in detail just how much elite private education in the Untied States favor the ultra-wealthy. As the New York Times reports, “At Ivy League schools, one in six students has parents in the top 1 percent.” The rich enjoy disproportionate access to these schools due to a mixture of legacy admission, sports admissions for specialized sport programs (like fencing), and weight given to personal essays as well as letters of recommendation.
In a very real sense, elite private universities are a major pillar of plutocracy, allowing a narrow caste to hold on to social and political dominance that goes hand in hand with their economic wealth.
Matt Bruenig of the People’s Policy Project has written an excellent summary of the report. For this episode of The Time of Monsters, I talked with Matt about the problem of inequality in higher education. We take up possible reform policies and also the possibility that these institutions might be inherently harmful to democracy. This leads to a discussion of possible measures to nationalize elite private schools and absorb them into a proper and robust public education system.
Strikes on Rafah, Long-Range Weapons in Ukraine, And A South Africa Election | American Prestige
GoFundMe Profits from People’s Pain | Tech Won't Save Us
Origins of American Empire in the Asia-Pacific Region with Stuart Rollo | American Prestige
Gaza Protest and Free Speech, plus Biden’s Haiti Gala | Start Making Sense
Marty Peretz And The Neoliberal Reckoning | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
Death of Ebrahim Raisi, Rafah Offensive in Gaza, Unrest in New Caledonia | American Prestige
Tech’s Plan to ‘Ethnically Cleanse’ San Francisco with Gil Duran | Tech Won't Save Us
The Abortion Pill Underground, plus Can Dems Hold the Senate? | Start Making Sense
Soviet Monumental Architecture with Katherine Zubovich | American Prestige
The New Threat to Civil Liberties After Gaza | The Time of Monsters
Biden's Carte Blanche for Israel, Slovakia PM Shot, Myanmar's Rohingya Conscription | American Prestige
How BYD is Upending the EV Market with Paolo Gerbaudo | Tech Won't Save Us
American Origins of the Israel - Palestine Conflict, plus Climate Hope | Start Making Sense
The Nuclear Club, Pt. 2 w/ Jonathan Hunt | American Prestige
An Interview with Steve Albini (2020) | American Prestige
The War In Sudan with Khalid Medani | American Prestige
Tesla is Choosing Hype Over Substance with Edward Niedermeyer | Tech Won't Save Us
The Mob Attack on UCLA’s Gaza Encampment, plus Israel, Hamas, and Rape | Start Making Sense
State of the Sahel: Niger and Chad with Alex Thurston | American Prestige
Biden Versus the Pro-Palestinian Protesters | The Time of Monsters
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free