The Tutors and the Duke

In Wednesday's New York Times, I noticed

... the mother pointed out. She said she had paid Mr. Iyer’s company $750 to $1,500 each week this school year for 100-minute sessions on Liberal Studies, a total of about $35,000 — just shy of Riverdale’s $38,800 tuition.

The New York state median income for 2009 was about $54 thousand. That year the state spent about $15 thousand per student in the public schools.

I trust that the mother's offspring will get into a very good college. (If not, Mr. Iyer may need to hire a bodyguard.) Will they regard this as a case of merit properly rewarded? Will they complain about affirmative action if he is placed on a wait list?

I think now and then of the Duke of Wellington's good words for the Order of the Garter: there was "no damned nonsense about merit."