Huffman is the first of a group of accused parents to face consequences in the college admissions case.
Anya van Wagtendonk at Vox:
Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced on Friday to 14 days in federal prison for her role in a college admissions conspiracy. In that conspiracy, 34 wealthy and mostly white parents of college-age children are alleged to have paid thousands, and in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars, to inflate their children’s credentials during the college application season.
Huffman was the first parent to receive a judgment.
Judge Indira Talwani oversaw the sentencing in Boston, where an investigation by the US attorney for the District of Massachusetts accused some 50 people, including coaches, test administrators, and others, of falsifying college admissions credentials. Investigators said some of the accused changed answers on tests; others bribed athletic coaches to claim they had recruited students for sports they did not play.
The case shed light on the advantages that those with great financial resources have during the college admissions process, and on the fine line between acceptable upper-hands available to some — such as the ability to hire private tutors, access to internships, and legacy admissions — and outright fraud. It has also brought renewed attention to cases in which disadvantaged people, primarily poor parents of color, have faced strong punishment for educational fraud, placing a harsh spotlight on racial and economic discrepancies within American education.
Huffman was arrested in March of this year as part of the federal investigation into cheating during the college admissions process. She was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services fraud, and pleaded guilty on May 13 to paying $15,000 for a test proctor to correct her daughter’s incorrect answers on the SAT, thus greatly inflating her daughter’s scores.
Beyond having to serve a fortnight in prison, Huffman must also pay a $30,000 fine and serve 250 hours of community service. She will commence her two-week prison sentence on October 25.
At the sentencing, Judge Talwani rebuked those involved in the scandal, including Huffman, for being unsatisfied with the opportunities afforded by their wealth, and for using that money and influence to take “the step of obtaining one more advantage to put your child ahead of” everyone else.
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Friday’s sentencing hearing — and the ongoing legal action against the remaining alleged conspirators — raised questions of how wealthy and white defendants will fare when facing charges of educational fraud, compared to similar cases involving poor parents and students of color who are most affected by educational disparities.
At Huffman’s sentencing, for example, the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar was brought up: Williams-Bolar, a single mother who is black, was sentenced to five years in prison in 2011 for using her father’s suburban address to get her children into a different, well-regarded public school district. Her sentence was later reduced to 10 days in jail and three years of probation.
“If a poor single mom from Akron who is actually trying to provide a better education for her kids goes to jail, there is no reason that a wealthy, privileged mother with all the legal means available to her should avoid that same fate,” said Eric S. Rosen, the lead prosecutor in Huffman’s case.
Prosecutors in the Huffman case also referred to teachers in a mostly-black school district in Atlanta who received prison time — in some cases, up to three years — for helping students cheat on state tests. And the scandal has brought new attention to the case of Tonya McDowell, who was homeless in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when she enrolled her 5-year-old son in a suburban school district. She was charged with grand larceny and sentenced to five years in prison.
Some legal experts like David Singleton, who helped win clemency in the Williams-Bolar case, said the case provides a trenchant opportunity to examine the criminal justice system as a whole.
