Fox News Reports: Families saving for college and encouraging their kids to aim for the top are getting scammed by the left-wing college industrial complex. Colleges distort and outright lie about who gets accepted, education quality and what it costs. If they were selling auto loans and used the same deceptive tactics, they'd be in jail.

Columbia University announced last Wednesday that it is permanently eliminating SAT and ACT test scores as part of the undergraduate admissions process -- the first Ivy League school to go permanently test-optional. Columbia issued a slippery statement about making admissions "nuanced" and "respecting varied backgrounds, voices and experiences." Truth is, Columbia is ditching merit for diversity. Without admitting it, Columbia has replaced an academic mission -- providing a rigorous education to a group of prepared students -- with a new one: social engineering.

Expect other colleges to follow. Elon Musk commented Saturday that "very few Americans seem to realize the severity of the situation."

President Joe Biden made equity the mission of all federal agencies. On March 1, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona blasted the higher education industry's "unhealthy obsession with selectivity" and urged a focus on "upward mobility."

That's politics. But parents making the biggest investment of their lives, except buying a home, ought to know what they're paying for: a rigorous classroom experience for their youngster, or a bit part in a social experiment.