Mr. Williams, I thoroughly enjoyed your article regarding "Academic Dishonesty." I am a 22 year Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force and am presently persuing a Liberal Arts degree at the University of Oklahoma. It is very hard to work full time in the military and take 12 hours a semester. Some of my peers have chosen to take an easier path; one that can allow a person to basically pay for a Bachelors and complete it within 13 months. These "universities" give credit for some basic courses , like English" by simply writing a 10 page paper on a life experience. Are you kidding? These basic courses are the building blocks used for future courses. Has the world of academe really succumb to the mighty dollar? The University of Oklahoma is not an easy curriculum, nor do the professors coddle their students. Your article exposes a whole generation of lazy students that put no value on the education they are attempting to achieve. There is too many easy, fly-by-night, universities who place no value on the quality of education they are trying to provide, but just the piece of paper one would pay for in the end.

A sad state of affairs, indeed. You illustrate how this miasma permeates the elites among educational institutions; assuredly it afflicts education across the board, from kindergarten through graduate school. It's a racket.

Corroborating your observations are the leading roles played by those “from the best schools” who shepherd the world's economy into recurring cycles of fraud and financial collapse, loot organizations under the guise of “executive compensation,” and bloat our governments into ruin.

Meanwhile, the education industry presses ever more anxiously for more money, more “financial aid,” more buildings, greater campuses, posher “academic villages,” more, more. What amazes is that so few object.

We will pay for what we have collectively allowed, even demanded, for education to become.