Callahan: Inequality feeds desire to cheat

David Callahan, a senior fellow at Demos, is the author of "The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead."

Many educators and parents were stunned by the recent SAT cheating scandal on Long Island, which has led to the arrest of 20 current and former students so far. But there's little surprising about this episode: People cheat when there are rational incentives to do so, and never has it made more sense for students to cut corners -- and take big risks -- to improve their academic standing.

Young people today are anxious about getting into a top college, and for good reasons. While going to a competitive school has always conferred rewards, these advantages have soared amid rising economic inequality. In an America where the winners are pulling away from everyone else and the middle class is getting walloped, savvy young people are more determined than ever to be on the right side of this growing chasm.

A generation ago it wasn't all that hard to afford a nice house and middle-class lifestyle in a top suburb. If you went to college -- nearly any college -- and worked hard, chances are you'd be able to live the American dream. Not anymore. The house where I grew up in Westchester County, which my parents bought for $70,000 in 1971, recently sold for over a million dollars. Even the starter homes in my old neighborhood, which factory workers used to be able to afford on one salary, now go for high-six figures.

You can't make the kind of money that requires by doing OK; you need to do really well. And that, in turn, means playing every card right from age 15 onward: excelling in high school, scoring high on the SAT, going to a good college, probably also getting a graduate degree, and then working in a lucrative profession.

The SAT cheaters surely grasped this. Many parents, particularly in suburbs that prize their schools, stress the stakes of academic success at every turn. If anything, they feel even more anxiety than their kids about college admissions. Another reality understood by everyone is that great grades and test scores can make the difference between landing generous scholarships or carrying student debt for decades.

Cheating is one way for students to improve their economic odds, and it's rampant in both high schools and universities. A national survey released last February of 43,000 high school students found that 59 percent admitted to cheating on a test in the previous year. College students cheat at comparable levels and, according to researchers, all student cheating has increased dramatically since the 1970s.

Today's epidemic of academic cheating is often seen as yet more evidence of declining morality among young people and society more broadly. Yet numerous moral indicators have been moving in a positive direction for years now. Studies show that teenagers today are less likely to engage in violent crime, drive drunk, use illegal drugs, smoke and drink, or have sex.

The fact that kids cheat at startling levels even as they have become more socially prudent reflects societal trends over the past few decades: a crack down on personal irresponsibility, narrowly defined, along with laissez-faire policies that have created a dog-eat-dog economy where it's easy to feel like you're on your own.

Given the deep roots of the cheating culture in our schools, solutions won't come easy. Tougher penalties can make a difference, and the arrests in Nassau County are sure to be remembered for years to come. More important, though, young people need to see that cheating is not an OK response to what is, in fact, an unfair society. While many students see cheating as a victimless act, they're wrong: Cheaters get things they don't deserve -- like admissions to better colleges or scholarships -- and may edge out students who've worked harder and played by the rules.

Vague exhortations about integrity and honor won't curb academic cheating. What will are long-term steps to create more economic security for all and, in the meantime, strong appeals to a value that nearly all young people embrace: fairness to others.