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By: Alex Kocielski
By: Alex Kocielski
Editor
February 25, 2021
If I were to tell you that a certain company made over 1 billion dollars in revenue and over 100 million dollars in profit each year, would you call them for-profit? And a company with unopposed domination over a market, a monopoly? Any reasonable person would say yes. Now, I give you the College Board: the monopolistic for-profit company disguising itself as a helpful non-profit organization for student success.
The College Board was established in 1899 as a not-for-profit organization to help students reach a higher education. They have stayed true to their purpose of helping students but calling them a not-for-profit is laughable. As you and I know, they charge nearly $100 to take one AP Exam (which has been steadily increasing throughout the years), $15 to send one of your scores to one college, and a slew of fees for cancelations, late sign-ups, etc. Along with that, there’s the $50 SAT cost (and the additional $15 tacked on for the optional essay section). While it does cost money to run the College Board and they need to charge certain fees for exams, a true not-for-profit organization should not have a profit; it’s in the name. These prices earn the College Board over one hundred million dollars each year which is, if I’m not mistaken, quite a large sum for a not-for-profit.
This doesn’t even get into the salary of the executives of the College Board. The CEO of the College Board, David Coleman, makes over one million dollars a year and 13 executives make over three hundred thousand dollars a year based on the most recent data available. And while yes, organizations should pay their executives who make them function, they are not supposed to pay them this much.
In addition to the issue regarding the profit of the College Board, there is the whole “Monopoly or not?” ordeal. The College Board has grown monstrously over the past years to the point where the only known exams are their SAT and their main competitor, the ACT. Looking only at the exams, you could argue that they might only be one company in an oligopoly, but I invite you to look at some of your high school courses: “AP U.S. History”, “AP Lang. and. Comp.”, “AP Microeconomics”, “AP Macroeconomics”, “AP Calculus”; you get the point. All of the opportunities for higher education at a high-school level are offered by the College Board and the College Board alone. They have overwhelming power here and, unlike the SAT/ACT competition, there is no major alternative to AP classes. That, I would argue, is some textbook monopolistic competition.
In short, College Board treats our education system as a business; we wouldn’t be talking about their monopolistic tendencies if they weren’t. Along with that, they claim to be a not-for-profit organization yet they bring in $100,000,000 in profit annually. They have too much power and too little competition to be sustainable and, while I don’t know the solution, there is a clear problem here that needs to be addressed.
The College Board was established in 1899 as a not-for-profit organization to help students reach a higher education. They have stayed true to their purpose of helping students but calling them a not-for-profit is laughable. As you and I know, they charge nearly $100 to take one AP Exam (which has been steadily increasing throughout the years), $15 to send one of your scores to one college, and a slew of fees for cancelations, late sign-ups, etc. Along with that, there’s the $50 SAT cost (and the additional $15 tacked on for the optional essay section). While it does cost money to run the College Board and they need to charge certain fees for exams, a true not-for-profit organization should not have a profit; it’s in the name. These prices earn the College Board over one hundred million dollars each year which is, if I’m not mistaken, quite a large sum for a not-for-profit.
This doesn’t even get into the salary of the executives of the College Board. The CEO of the College Board, David Coleman, makes over one million dollars a year and 13 executives make over three hundred thousand dollars a year based on the most recent data available. And while yes, organizations should pay their executives who make them function, they are not supposed to pay them this much.
In addition to the issue regarding the profit of the College Board, there is the whole “Monopoly or not?” ordeal. The College Board has grown monstrously over the past years to the point where the only known exams are their SAT and their main competitor, the ACT. Looking only at the exams, you could argue that they might only be one company in an oligopoly, but I invite you to look at some of your high school courses: “AP U.S. History”, “AP Lang. and. Comp.”, “AP Microeconomics”, “AP Macroeconomics”, “AP Calculus”; you get the point. All of the opportunities for higher education at a high-school level are offered by the College Board and the College Board alone. They have overwhelming power here and, unlike the SAT/ACT competition, there is no major alternative to AP classes. That, I would argue, is some textbook monopolistic competition.
In short, College Board treats our education system as a business; we wouldn’t be talking about their monopolistic tendencies if they weren’t. Along with that, they claim to be a not-for-profit organization yet they bring in $100,000,000 in profit annually. They have too much power and too little competition to be sustainable and, while I don’t know the solution, there is a clear problem here that needs to be addressed.
Many Sandburg students are familiar with CollegeBoard, whether they know it or not. They are the company responsible for SAT tests and Advanced Placement (AP) tests. Photo Courtesy of the CollegeBoard
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