It is fair to say that the current trend in opinion about higher education reflects a stunning reversal of a once-positive consensus of its value. This negative drift is an unhealthy direction for our democracy and should drive an urgent examination of its causes.

We can identify some of the issues at the center of the increasing cynicism about higher education: the conduct of admissions programs, including criminal behavior at some elite schools; the undeniable influence of wealth in admissions decisions; the uncertain substitution for affirmative action; the advantages created by standardized testing; staggering student debt, exceeding $1.7 trillion; the transformation of college sports from amateur to professional status with billions at stake; the multi-millions of dollars paid to college and university executives and coaches; and the turmoil on our campuses as they grapple with issues of speech and political advocacy.

Admissions programs, and the criteria they employ, are the product of each college. If susceptible to the influence of wealth, criminality (think “Varsity Blues”) or unfairness, it is the particular school that must be held accountable. If elite schools continue to traffic in legacy and athletic preferences, the advantage of early decision, the illusion of fairness in standardized testing, the race to gin up applications in order to reject more applicants, or pander to the demands of the rating publications, these and other policies are of their own making.

No one mandates what a college must charge for tuition. If – at a time when endowments reach as high as $50 billion – it approaches $60,000 at elite colleges, and the overall cost of attendance is $80,000, it is altogether understandable that Americans are questioning these unconscionable realities.

The acceleration of debt may allow some families to stretch beyond reason. For others, the price is simply too high and forecloses many students from entering the competition. The resulting division in society, separating red and blue states, and coastal elites from the heartland, is reinforced by higher education, not ameliorated by it. Those who can pay the price feel entitled, in return, to good grades, as any consumer would, and colleges are more than willing to accommodate by inflating them.

The chase for dollars finds its greatest expression in the transformation of college sports. Once the province of amateur competition, it has become the arena, in the major conferences, for professional athletes to display their talents as they transfer from school to school seeking multi-million dollar contracts. They best among them will spend as few years as possible, and as few hours as possible, in a college classroom. And alumni boosters raise millions of dollars to entice them to spend whatever time these athletes have at their alma mater. The schools themselves are tripping over one another to join the most lucrative conferences with the richest broadcast opportunities.

One might hope that educators would try to put an end to this perversion of education, which takes classroom seats from deserving students, but, alas, they support and facilitate and hope to thrive in this alternate universe.

The recent turmoil on campuses reflects this absence of educational leadership. Presidents of elite institutions are unable to articulate, for the American people, the delicate balance required to manage their diverse and complicated communities, offering political opportunists the platform to excoriate their leadership and even drive their resignations.

One result of the unsettling trends in higher education in America is its decline in standing among developed countries. If our competitive juices are drained by not offering our students the chance to shine among our peers, then perhaps we can all agree that a reexamination of higher education is overdue. While it can not undo the fundamental inequality in public K-12 schooling in our country, it can serve to open its doors to all who seek its benefits, and reset its mission.

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