The Great Academic Purge

Tucked inside Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” signed into law almost exactly a year ago is a new law federal bureaucrats have referred to as the “do no harm” test.

Technically named “STATS” – Student Tuition and Transparency System – this test is part of the Earnings Accountability rule. It will eventually require universities to gather data on student outcomes in certain majors. If those majors fail to report earned income higher than median workers without a college degree, they will lose federal funding.

Seems like common sense. Why should taxpayers foot the bill on (astronomical) college debts for educations that have no hope of ever paying back the money?

Of course, the NPR’s of the world are against it:

“Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle,” said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.

She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says that could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.

“We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators,” he said. “We don’t know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally.”