Laudator Temporis Acti

Marissa Meador, " Indiana colleges already nixed hundreds of degrees. This national group's push could risk more," Indianapolis Star (Jan. 9, 2026):

An Indiana bill, written by a conservative think tank based in Florida, would deny grants and scholarships administered by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to college degree programs that don't provide a sufficient return on investment for graduates, just less than a year after lawmakers forced colleges to eliminate or merge hundreds of degrees.

Senate Bill 161 is based off of a similar provision in President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which blocks federal student loans and other aid from "low earning" degrees.

Under the bill, a degree is determined to be "low earning" if the median wage of a program's cohort falls below the median wage of someone between 24 and 35 with only a high school degree, said Foundation for Government Accountability senior fellow Christian Barnard, who drafted the bill's language.

My degrees — B.A. (Latin), M.A. (Latin), Ph.D. (Classics) — would all fall into the category of low earning degrees. That such a think tank has the effrontery to brand itself "conservative" is almost beyond belief.

Hat tip: Dave Haxton.