Cost Benefit Analysis on Cheating

Cost Benefit Analysis on Cheating Student’s Name Institution Cost Benefit Analysis on Cheating The article by Stockman and Mureithi (2019) in the New York Times exposes a key problem in the American education system- cheating. From the article and the comments, it is deducible that cheating is a practice that has been going on for quite some time. This paper presents a cost-benefit analysis of cheating. The paper argues that the costs of the practice including breaking the law, suspension and expulsion, and negative impact on employment outweigh the benefits that include passing exams and source of income for third world citizens. The costs associated with cheating are myriad and one of them is breaking the law. According to the article by Stockman and Mureithi (2019), while punishment and enforcement are rare, the practice of cheating is illegal in seventeen states in the US. It is therefore possible for one to face punishment from the practice. In addition, doing something that is against the law hurts one’s conscience and if one is able to live with the guilt or get used to it, they may engage in more illegal activities. In this sense, cheating is costly because one can suffer punishment if they are caught and it can also hurt one’s conscience. Another significant cost of cheating is possible suspension and expulsion. Once one is caught, they can be placed on probation or even expelled from school. If a student is expelled, thousands of dollars in education costs would have gone to waste. Therefore, one can throw his or her whole life away just because of cheating. Furthermore, expulsion due to cheating can be a blow to parents and guardians, who have supported the student in various ways. Another cost associated with suspension and expulsion include the resources used by educational institutions to ...