Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin's college scandal shows just how flawed America’s education system is

'A reminder: you don't need to go to a fancy school in order to be successful/happy. You really, really don’t,' read one viral tweet after the scandal broke. But is that really the answer?

My mother always told me not to worry about the cost of my college education when researching universities as a high school student.

“Focus on where you want to go,” she would say. “Your father and I will make sure everything else gets sorted out.”

It was her way of promising me that I would somehow be able to attend any school I chose, no matter the price tag. But her reassurances were in direct conflict with major aspects of our shared reality.

I was privileged to grow up comfortably in a middle-to-upper-middle class community, but there were several moments when it seemed as though the ground was about to be pulled out from underneath us. When my father was laid off by his company, I remember eavesdropping on my parents at night from the top of the staircase next to the kitchen as they sipped coffee, crunched numbers and rhetorically asked aloud how they would possibly be able to hold onto our home.

I had always wanted to work in journalism — an industry that pays far below median incomes across most US cities. Was it seriously worth taking out college loans that amounted to more than the annual income for my desired profession? How would we be able to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in tuition bills when a gap in my father’s employment could spell bankruptcy for my family?

None of those concerns were on my mind when I signed a digital contract vowing to pay nearly $30,000 (£22,940) in loans to study journalism at the University of Maryland. I was 18, and focused on doing exactly as my mother had instructed: she pushed me to follow my dreams, while sweeping under the rug the massive burden both she and I would face by me choosing an out-of-state university for my studies.

I can only imagine how much more difficult it would be for American students who lack the resources and safety net I was lucky enough to have been afforded in life.

It is one of the biggest open secrets in American society that higher education no longer serves as a ladder for upward mobility. Rather, the education system has been transformed into a corporate entity ruled almost exclusively by the concerns of businesses and the wealthy. Those who are provided clear pathways to study and excel in universities nationwide are often among the highest bidders in a corrupt system dominated by the rich and white.

So it came as no surprise to me and many others in the millennial generation when the federal government announced on Tuesday a slate of indictments resulting from an investigation into the largest college admissions cheating scam in history, dubbed “Operation Varsity Blues”. The alleged scam was said to involve dozens of wealthy and prominent families hiring people to take the SATs and other exams for their kids. One person is said to have been bribed a total of $25m (£19m) to place such undeserving students in top schools.

“This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud,” Andrew Lelling, the US attorney for Massachusetts, said in a press conference. “There can be no separate college admission system for the wealthy, and I'll add that there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.”

He added, “For every student admitted through fraud, an honest, genuinely talented student was rejected.”

However, his comments ignore that there currently are, in fact, two systems for the rich and the poor in both higher education and criminal justice. For parents like Hollywood actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin — both of whom are accused of being involved in this fraud — it seems that the question is not what university is the appropriate match for their children’s abilities; rather, it’s what amount of money would be required to get them into the most prestigious school possible, regardless of their level of intelligence or athleticism.

Lelling’s comments continued to point out — and at times excuse — the exact corrupt system Operation Varsity Blues was supposedly meant to combat. “We’re not talking about donating a building so a school is more likely to take your son or daughter,” he said at one point. “We’re talking about deception or fraud.”

In a properly functional system, a parent’s financial contribution should never impact a school’s decision to accept a student. But of course, in America, it does. And the federal prosecutor’s dismissal of such acts reflects what little is being done to course-correct a system that increasingly shuts out the majority of the country. If we're not talking about why donating a building so a school is more likely to take someone's son or daughter, why aren't we?

Immediately after news of the scandal broke, many commentators echoed the sentiments of one viral tweet, which read: “A reminder: you don't need to go to a fancy school in order to be successful/happy. You really, really don’t.” While that’s certainly true, we should also strive to live in a society which is genuinely meritocratic: one where a person who has excellent academic abilities and ambitions in that sphere is not shut out of the university most suited to their needs because some of their less talented, less ambitious peers had wealthier parents.

Even without the enormous financial contributions or fraudulent schemes, I was given so much more than many others hoping to go to school in America. From a young age, I was provided resources like tutors to help my math scores and SAT courses to achieve the best score possible (legally, at least). Others like me have connections to university board members and can take unpaid internships to stand out in pools of applicants in the workplace. Rather than urge people not to attend college or to "be successful and happy" without it, we should be bold enough to reform our broken system. Otherwise the American Dream itself will become impossible.