I just remember 2 episodes. While it was entertaining, one episode lacked any intellectual rigor at all. It seems like Gladwell can't understand the counterarguments at all and chooses to cut out most of them with out realizing.
One obvious thing he misses is the moral hazard of rewarding poor performing schools. Also, the real question is why donate to universities at all? There is no real reason why universities can't support teaching purely on tuition. University can easily charge on a sliding scale based on need and SAT scores. If they want more kids to go to college, they can give to scholarships directly. Giving to university directly just promotes spending them on outspending each other on other axis for attention...
Is the second reason one he actually agrees with? Does he consider the second order effects? He thinks giving more to poor schools would be a "good" thing. All it would do is cause more schools to try to fight for prestige and donations. We have 15ish schools were their number one goal is to find ways to get donations. What would happen if 150ish school expected to be able to get huge sums of money as donations? Many would change their focus away from education and what students what to donors. I think it likely to increase tuition and decrease enrollment. Top 15 schools need to be selective to be the best. If the 100th best school want to look like it getting better it needs to become much more selective.
One obvious thing he misses is the moral hazard of rewarding poor performing schools. Also, the real question is why donate to universities at all? There is no real reason why universities can't support teaching purely on tuition. University can easily charge on a sliding scale based on need and SAT scores. If they want more kids to go to college, they can give to scholarships directly. Giving to university directly just promotes spending them on outspending each other on other axis for attention...