Letters to the Editor: Why do colleges favor rich families? They need them to fund financial aid

To the editor: Your editorial decrying early decision admissions at college and universities, as with so much of the recent reporting on higher education, ignores the reality that private schools (and many public ones) are businesses that depend on wealthier families who can pay full tuition in order to provide discounts for families with financial need.

Schools also depend on donors, who are the primary source of financial aid dollars that benefit students who need that help. It is typical for a private college to have 30% full-pay students in order to afford to provide financial aid to the 70% of students who need it.

The dollars for financial aid do not grow on trees; they come from donors and wealthier families. Without them, there would not be any financial aid.

Stephen Rountree, Pasadena

The writer is former chair of the Occidental College board of directors.

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To the editor: After reading your piece on the admission practices used by the “privileged students,” it becomes obvious that the best way of spreading this privilege around is to make sure that all students have equal access.

This can most quickly and most equitably be done by assuring that all students receive the same quality of secondary education.

How we do this is quite simple, really: Give all parents and students a choice in their education. Give the students a voucher and let them pick the school they wish to attend. Let them pick public, private, parochial or home school. That way, nobody is discriminated against.

Obviously, it will take a few years for some of the public schools to close down and for other institutions to take over their facilities and hire more teachers. But this can be worked out.

If you believe your own editorial, get behind the school choice movement today.

Kevin Minihan, Los Angeles