Any good parent will want the best for their children, and that includes a good education. Some parents are in the position of being able to spend money to improve their children’s education. Most of the time, this is done legally and no laws or rules of any kind of broken. For example, parents may hire a private tutor to help their children better understand some of the subject matter they’re being taught. Recently, it emerged that a number of wealthy parents in the US had paid various high sums of money to ensure their children would get into some of the country’s top universities. This ongoing college admissions scandal has seen dozens of parents facing serious charges, with many of them possibly facing years in prison. In these cases, the law was clearly broken. It’s obviously wrong to break the law, but in cases where money is spent to help children get ahead without any laws being broken, is this acceptable?
Yes – There’s nothing wrong with helping your child succeed
Parents try to get the best education for their children in all sorts of ways. As previously mentioned, many employ private tutors to help their children; some pay to send their children to private school and some even move house so their children will automatically qualify for a place at a better school. Parents also actively encourage their children to get the highest marks possible and to take part in various extracurricular activities so that when it comes to applications for universities, their children will stand a better chance of getting admitted. None of these things are illegal and there are countless parents out there who will do all these things and more to give their children the best education possible. Surely there’s nothing wrong with this if no laws are broken? When it comes to paying to help your children get ahead, how can this be wrong when so many parents do it and it’s so readily available? So long as everything’s legal and above board, there’s nothing wrong with hiring a tutor, for example, when other parents can do the same.
No – Rich kids shouldn’t be able to get ahead because they’re rich
On the other hand, you can argue that it’s wrong to pay towards your children’s education because not everyone can afford to do so. Ideally, money and education should be separate and children with rich parents wouldn’t be in line for a better education simply because they were lucky to be born into wealth. Children should be on an equal footing and should succeed because of their hard work, intelligence and skills – they shouldn’t go far simply because their parents have money. When it comes to university places, should a child with rich parents get in over someone who’s just as intelligent but hasn’t had a good education because their parents couldn’t afford it. What it boils down to is that some children, no matter how gifted or able they are, end up receiving a better education because of their parents’ money. While parents will undoubtedly defend their decision to pay towards their children’s education, it’s ultimately a case of the rich getting a head start in life.
