Most U.S. institutions of higher education don’t even try to live up to their egalitarian ideals.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s proposal to overhaul admissions for New York City’s elite high schools has proved highly divisive, leaving some Asian-American students feeling that they are being pitted against their black and Hispanic neighbors.
His idea has also made the city a national focal point in the debate over race, class and fairness in education. If his plan — which would scrap the admissions exam and instead reserve seats at the eight specialized high schools for the top students at every city middle school — is approved by the Legislature, the selective schools’ racial makeup would change practically overnight.
Another hypocrisy has to do with using legal donations to get into a prestigious college. Universities are loath to admit the details, but if you give a few million dollars to a top school, your children will be given very favorable admissions consideration. More generally, the advantages of coming from a wealthy, well-educated, “upstanding” family are extreme. Some colleges have more students from the top 1 percent than from the bottom 60, in terms of income.
That kind of unbalanced enrollment isn’t mainly because of donations, but still it seems unfair, a sign that a particular kind of early head start is being valued too highly. Which brings me to one final hypocrisy: These inegalitarian results are tolerated, even engineered, by the very same American institutions that pride themselves on their supposedly egalitarian values.
大多数美国高等教育机构甚至没有尝试实现他们的平等理想。
纽约市市长Bill de Blasio提出的对纽约市顶尖高中招生情况进行全面改革的建议被证明会引发争议产生分歧，因为这让一些亚裔美国学生感到自己正与他们的黑人和西班牙裔邻居竞争。
他的想法也使纽约成为种族、阶级、教育公平辩论的全国焦点。如果他的计划——取消入学考试，为每个城市中学的尖子生在八所专业高中中预留座位——得到立法机构批准，那么这些顶尖学校的种族构成会在一夜之间发生变化。
另一个虚伪现象与利用合法捐款进入名牌大学有关。大学不愿意承认这些细节，但如果您给一所顶级学校几百万美元，您的孩子将被优先考虑入学。一般来说，来自富裕、受过良好教育又“正直”家庭的孩子优势是显而易见的。就（家庭）收入而言，一些大学来自人群收入前1%家庭的学生数量要多过后60%家庭的学生。
这种不平衡的招生现象并不主要因为捐款，但似乎依旧是不公平的，这表明一种特殊的超前开始被高度重视。这让我想到最后一个虚伪现象：这些不平等的现象是被那些以所谓平等价值为荣的美国机构所容忍，甚至是精心策划设计的。
egalitarian 平等
overhaul 彻底检查，全面检查
elite 经营，上层集团
divisive 造成不和的，制造分裂的
pitted against 使与…共斗
national focal point 国家焦点
reserve seats 保留座位，预留席位
hypocrisy 虚伪，伪善
enrollment 登记，注册
inegalitarian 不平等的
pride themselves on 为…感到自豪
If his plan — which would scrap the admissions exam and instead reserve seats at the eight specialized high schools for the top students at every city middle school — is approved by the Legislature, the selective schools’ racial makeup would change practically overnight. 两个破折号中间部分做插入语，也是一个定语从句，解释说明plan内容是什么。
Some colleges have more students from the top 1 percent than from the bottom 60, in terms of income. 此处的income根据前文可知，指的是学生家庭收入；此句省略较多，“students from the top 1 percent than from the bottom 60”中，补全省略部分应为students from the top 1 percent （family） than from the bottom 60（percent family）。
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