Dabney Coleman, ‘9 to 5’ Star Who Made a Career Out of Playing Jerks, Dies at 92: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dabney-coleman-dead-9-to-5-mary-hartman-tootsie-1235902521/

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Dabney Coleman, the popular comic actor from 9 to 5, Tootsie and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman whose many redeeming qualities including a knack for portraying characters who had none, has died. He was 92. 

Coleman died Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, his daughter, singer Quincy Coleman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“My father crafted his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul on fire with passion, desire and humor that tickled the funny bone of humanity,” she said. “As he lived, he moved through this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.

“A teacher, a hero and a king, Dabney Coleman is a gift and blessing in life and in death as his spirit will shine through his work, his loved ones and his legacy … eternally.”

...

Truly an American Icon.  He will be missed.   My favorite role of his was in the excellent film Wargames. 

1 hour ago, Bobref said:

That’s because you like what he says. It doesn’t matter who is saying it.

What is your personal opinion of Mr. Butker's speech?

I know several young individuals, under the age of 33, who have earned a teaching degree.  All except for one have quit the teaching profession after 5-6 years max.  Primary reasons was not pay but  a) stupid legislation like HEA 1558 and  b) a mostly apathetic/unruly student body.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2024/05/20/proposed-house-vs-ncaa-power-5-settlement-unfairly-hurts-small-schools-nil-billion-dollars/73760608007/

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INDIANAPOLIS – Decades of condescending greed from our country’s largest college sports programs, and arrogant incompetence from the organization meant to oversee them — the NCAA — have brought us here, to one of the most condescendingly greedy, arrogantly incompetent, utterly absurd decisions in the annals of NCAA nonsense.

You sitting down for this? There’s a lot here, numbers that will make your eyes glaze and dollar figures that will make your head spin, but don’t worry too much about that. Nobody told you there’d be math, and we’ll keep it to a minimum, but there’s an old saying: Math is logical.

The NCAA, sadly, is not.

The NCAA, a group started in good faith in 1906 to oversee college sports, lost its way along the way as the money grew and problems rose and doing the right thing, every time, became too damn difficult. For years the NCAA has done the right thing only when convenient, much like its largest college sports programs, who have too much money at stake — too many high-paying jobs in too many wood-paneled, brass-trimmed offices — to do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing.

All that history, all that arrogant incompetence from the NCAA and condescending greed from the leaders in this Darwinian clubhouse — what we call the Power 5 conferences — has led us to the point of chaos and the brink of destruction of college sports. But the survival instinct is strong among schools in the SEC, Big Ten and Co., and the obeisance is disgusting in the NCAA offices staining the White River in Downtown Indianapolis, so here we are:

The NCAA is on the verge of settling the landmark House vs. NCAA anti-trust lawsuit — a lawsuit filed after decades of condescending greed and arrogant incompetence — with a final bill projected in the range of $2.8 billion, according to reporting from Yahoo! Sports.

The class-action lawsuit has thousands of plaintiffs and three types of damages, with the overwhelming majority of damages tied to broadcast revenue attributable to Power 5 football and men’s basketball.  Although two other categories of damages are involved (video game NIL and third-party NIL), reporting from Yahoo! Sports and ESPN show the damages are largely connected to revenue from media agreements.  According to expert witness testimony in case filings, approximately 90% of the value of those media agreements is attributable to football and men’s basketball, which means an overwhelming majority (roughly 90%) of damages will be paid to Power 5 athletes.

....

You can imagine the cost for the NCAA and its 60 or 70 largest sports programs to pay up to 90% of $2.8 billion. It would be fair but financially crushing, and if there’s one thing we know about the largest schools in college sports, it’s this: They’re not interested in being financially crushed.

Lucky for them, the NCAA isn’t interested in being fair.

So how to pay off 90% of $2.8 billion?

Send a bill or withhold significant future revenue distributions to the Mid-American Conference and the Horizon League. And the MEAC and Patriot League and all of the 27 conferences that make up the 32-league NCAA — the Power 5, and the Other 27 — and ask those 27 smaller leagues, whose former student-athletes account for a tiny fraction of the plaintiffs in the House class action, to pay nearly $1 billion of the total bill.

Math is hard, but logical. Find a calculator, or just trust me on this: The other 27 conferences are not responsible for 60% (or even half of that) of the damages; 10% of $2.8 billion is $280 million. That’s what the Other 27 ought to be asked to pay.

But the NCAA, along with the Power 5, want the Other 27 to pay closer to $990 million. And that’s not even the full amount due. More on that in a minute.

Just know this: If the NCAA and Power 5 aren’t stopped, that miscarriage of justice will happen in the next few days.

.....

First, the background. That proposed settlement you read, where the Other 27 are being asked to pay nearly $1 billion, was negotiated over the past several months in private. In secret, even. The principal players at the negotiating table were representatives of the NCAA and the Power 5.

 

Guess who wasn’t included?

The Other 27.

Those smaller leagues — places like the Big Sky, Ohio Valley and SWAC — didn’t find out about the proposed settlement, and their nearly $1 billion contribution, until about two weeks ago. After the deed was all but done.

....

The NCAA and Power 5 are hiding behind numbers, mainly this one: The Other 27 conferences, with close to 300 schools total, receive approximately 60% of total NCAA revenue distributions. The Power 5 receives the other 40%. Ergo, by the NCAA’s sense of fair play, the Other 27 should pay 60% of that $1.65 billion.

I know, lots of numbers. Just remember this one: 10%.

That’s how much of the proposed $2.8 billion settlement will likely be earmarked for athletes from Other 27 schools.

In sum: Other 27 conferences pay 60% of $1.65 billion, not to mention a share of the $1.15 billion mentioned in the first bullet-point, despite having athletes who stand to earn roughly 10% of the $2.8 billion settlement.

....

Can IU Indianapolis, Indiana State survive this without cutting sports?

Schools in the Power 5 are all but printing money thanks to TV and other media contracts, to say nothing of the revenue coming from all those big-time football games. Schools from those leagues are making so much money, they’ve agreed since 2022 to pay 10 different (former) football coaches a combined $176 million just to get rid of them. Those buyouts are happening at football schools huge (Texas A&M is paying $76 million to Jimbo Elliott) and modest (IU football is paying $15.5 million to Tom Allen).

Power 5 schools can afford that, just as they’ll find a way to afford whatever hit is coming from House vs. NCAA.

The other 27? They’re lost. The proposed $2.8 billion settlement, with so much of it being asked of the Other 27, will come down to at least $2 million to $3 million a year across those conferences for the next 10 years. For the next decade, that would whittle $20-30 million from conferences and schools like IUPUI and Valparaiso, Evansville and Indiana State.

There’s no more fat to be cut from athletic programs like those, and very little muscle. Next to go will be bones — scholarships being eliminated for young men and women at most places, outright sports being cut at others.

All because the NCAA, and Power 5, want the Other 27 to subsidize a settlement weighted heavily — 90% to 10% — toward plaintiffs from Power 5 schools.

This is neither right nor fair. It’s the Power 5 making up the rules as they go along, and it’s the NCAA doing what the NCAA has done for decades — cowering to schools like Ohio State and Texas, and taking it out on the likes of Southern Indiana and Purdue Fort Wayne.

 

Nice column by Mr. Doyel.  I can see this lopsided settlement being the beginning of the end of the NCAA as we know it. 

Biden and Trump Want a Presidential Debate Safe Space: https://reason.com/2024/05/16/biden-and-trump-want-a-presidential-debate-safe-space/

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to participate in two presidential debates—one in June and one in September—after both candidates bucked the Commission on Presidential Debates, the nonprofit organization that has managed such affairs since 1988.

Biden had a list of demands regarding the terms of this debate, such as the elimination of the traditional live audience and inclusion of mics that immediately cut off when the candidate's time has elapsed and the other person is speaking. Apparently these terms were amenable to Trump, who nevertheless complained that Biden is afraid of crowds.

This means the candidates have officially killed the proposal put forth by the commission, which wanted three debates somewhat closer to Election Day, in September and October. There is nothing sacred about the commission, and these new debates may well be an improvement over last cycle's. Preventing the candidates from interrupting each other would be a significant win for the viewing public and everyone involved.

That said, Biden and Trump have utterly failed—unsurprisingly—to agree to the most desirable change, which would have been to include more candidates. The commission infamously restricted its debates to just candidates polling above a 15 percent threshold. In 2016, this meant that Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson was excluded despite polling as high as 13 percent in some surveys. By mutual decree, Biden and Trump are sticking with this arbitrary limitation.

In a statement, the Biden campaign said the purpose of the debate was "to compare the only two candidates with any statistical chance of prevailing in the Electoral College" and not to waste time "on candidates with no prospect of becoming president." That's a rather direct rebuke of independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is currently polling at about 10 percent in battleground states.

RFK Jr. is not currently in a position to win the presidential election. But he could have a major impact. Polls show that he is currently pulling votes from Biden and Trump in somewhat equal measure. He has also attracted a following among anti-establishment, populist, and even some libertarian voters. If either Biden or Trump were to make an appeal to previous supporters who have decamped for RFK Jr., and win them back, it could be the difference on Election Day.

Of course, both major party candidates are probably more worried about the opposite thing happening: RFK Jr. winning an even greater number of their voters. Their present actions betray them; the Biden campaign is doing everything in its power to undermine RFK Jr.'s ballot access drive, while Trump is desperate to remind his base of RFK Jr.'s decidedly nonconservative views on guns, environmental regulation, and abortion.

RFK Jr. holds an eclectic mix of views, some of which appeal to supporters of limited government: He opposed COVID-19 mandates, is worried about federal efforts to suppress dissent on social media, and does not want to continue sending billions in foreign aid to Ukraine. Yet he remains a progressive liberal on a range of social and economic issues. He recently expressed support for both student loan debt forgiveness and affirmative action.

He is keen to join the debate stage. He recently issued a challenge to Trump to debate him later this month at the Libertarian National Convention, where both candidates will be speaking. (Hopefully the party will make time for its own prospective candidates as well.) Trump does not seem likely to take him up on this offer; like Biden, Trump wants a presidential debate safe space, where the two presidents* only have to face each other.

Cowards, both of them.

Well I won't be voting for either uni-part candidate, so it's just entertainment for me.

1 hour ago, swordfish said:

Let the bloodbath commence......It's all part of a scheme (IMHO) that will be the downfall of the Biden Presidency.....

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13423051/biden-trump-debate-scott-jennings.html

What's REALLY behind Biden's utterly pathetic debate gambit: SCOTT JENNINGS reveals how Joe's cynical scheme could backfire... and finally convince Democrats to kick HIM off the ticket

 

Mr. Biden's handlers will really have to juice him up if he is to stand any chance.   But if Mr. Trump gets convicted will Mr. Biden still want to debate him?  Will some coalition in the RNC have the cojones to kick Mr. Trump off the ticket if he is convicted?    Can a candidate who is a convicted felon win the presidency?

10 hours ago, Irishman said:

Colts schedule is out.
Interesting things:
1. Of the 15 games that are set for time, they have 13 games starting at 1 pm. 

 

That is probably because they only have one game that isn't in the Eastern or Central time zone.  

1 hour ago, Impartial_Observer said:

Is making money really the point of education based sports?

I think the NCAA knows the answer to that question.  As does the Big 10, SEC, etc.

Netflix signs with the NFL: Exclusive Christmas Day games start this season:  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/netflix-gets-the-nfl-three-year-deal-starts-this-season-on-christmas/

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Hey football fans! You've already got your subscriptions to CBS, NBC, Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN Plus, Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, NFL Network, and YouTube TV, right? Well, get ready for one more: Netflix! The biggest streaming provider that wasn't showing NFL games is now jumping into the pile. The NFL and Netflix have signed a three-year deal that will put exclusive Christmas games on the streaming service.

The first Netflix Christmas games will be this season, on December 25, 2024, (that's a Wednesday, by the way). Netflix will get two Christmas games this year, with exact times and teams to be announced later tonight at the NFL's live schedule unveiling extravaganza (even the schedule is an event now). The NFL says 2025 and 2026 will see "at least one" game on the service each Christmas. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In the quickly changing landscape of TV, the NFL has long been one of the few things left that is still appointment television. Of the top 100 highest-rated US TV broadcasts in 2023, 93 percent of them were NFL games. In the hyper-fragmented world of streaming, landing a few exclusive NFL games is a great way to hook people into your service. NBC's exclusive Peacock playoff game brought in 23 million viewers last year. And even if that was a bit low by NFL standards, NBC called it "the most streamed event ever in US history" and "a milestone moment in media and sports history." You might think NFL fans would immediately cancel after the final kneel-down, but one study showed a shocking 71 percent of users that signed up for the NFL game were still on Peacock seven weeks later.

Netflix has been dipping its toe into the NFL content stream with special reality-style documentaries like Quarterback and the upcoming Receiver, which star current NFL players, but this is the first time the streamer has gotten actual live football. With NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV and Thursday Night Football games on Amazon Prime, the NFL is moving online more than ever. In a few years things will get even wilder: In 2029, the NFL can cancel all the TV deals at the same time, if it wants. That would lead to an unprecedented bidding war among all the TV and streaming providers and would upend the entire NFL content world.

Enjoy your "free" NFL games while you can.  By 2030 it is a real possibility the NFL will disappear from the traditional OTA networks, and you'll have to subscribe to some streaming service to view them.

Beware of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act: https://mises.org/mises-wire/beware-anti-semitism-awareness-act

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The House of Representatives passed the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” on May 2, by a vote of 320-91 in reaction to demonstrations on numerous university campuses and elsewhere against the brutal and genocidal policy of Israel in Gaza. The Act has now been sent to the Senate, where it seems certain to pass. This is an extremely dangerous bill that could criminalize the Bible, many Christian Churches, as well as any negative remarks about Israel and Jews. In brief, it threatens us with totalitarian thought control. We must do everything we can to oppose it.

First, let’s take an overview of the Act. It adopts the very broad definition of anti-Semitism of the “International Holocaust Remembrance Association.” The Act calls this definition “a vital tool which helps individuals understand and identify the various manifestations of antisemitism.”

What does this definition say? “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed in hatred of Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” How you can be anti-Semitic toward someone who isn’t Jewish isn’t immediately apparent.

The authors of the definition give someone examples of what they consider anti-Semitic. These include saying that the Jews control the media and Congress, saying that Israel is a racist state, propagating the “blood libel” that the Jews killed Jesus, minimizing or denying the Holocaust, and claiming that Jews in America have “dual loyalty.”

As a number of writers including Tucker Carlson and John Zmirak have pointed out, the definition allows large parts of the Bible to be banned. The most famous such passage is Matthew 27: 25. “His blood be upon us and our children.” This is the “blood libel” that the Act wouldn’t let us teach!

You might object that the Act would never be enforced in this way. The American people would never stand for it! But it would always be there, like a sword of Damocles, hanging over our heads. And don’t be so sure it wouldn’t be enforced! The Scottish Hate Speech Act was passed in 2021, and people predicted it would never be enforced. Beginning in April 2024, though, it has been enforced, and many people have been fined and imprisoned for violating it.

The biggest problem with the Act, though, isn’t the definition of anti-Semitism. If it were, we could substitute a more reasonable definition, such as “hatred for all Jews.” Even if this were done, however, we would still be in an untenable position. Banning any kind of speech, whether it is good or bad, is incompatible with a free society. As the great Murray Rothbard has taught us, all rights are property rights. Everyone can set the rules for speech on his own property, and no one has the right to control what anyone says on someone else’s property. This includes speech which counts as “offensive.” Of course, we don’t live in a libertarian society, but we should come as close as we can in practice to it. This means following the strictest possible interpretation of the First Amendment. “Congress shall make no law. . .abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”. ‘No law” means “no law” and that includes laws against so-called “hate speech.” As the great legal scholar Dr. Wanjiru Njoya says, “Jews must learn to live in a world where people say offensive things about them, same as anyone else. You shouldn’t jail people for saying offensive things about Jews or Israel.”

We need to ask ourselves, why the Act has been passed at the present time. The answer is obvious. It is to block all criticism of Israel. And Israel should be criticized, because of the genocidal policy it is following in Gaza. The US government, led by brain-dead Biden and his gang of neocon controllers, have supported Israel with money and advanced weapons throughout Israel’s invasion. Anthony Blinken, “our” Secretary of State, flew to Tel Aviv as soon as the invasion started and, standing beside war criminal “Bibi” Netanyahu, said, “I come before you not only as the United States secretary of state but also as a Jew.” See here.

Is it “anti-Semitic” to report this? One of the examples the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Association’s definition of anti-Semitism is to say that Jews have a strong influence on American foreign policy. But it’s the simple truth.

And what policy do Blinken and his cohorts support? It is Israel’s policy to exterminate the Palestinians who live in Gaza. The great Ron Unz has called it “the greatest televised massacre of civilians in the history of the world.” Under the Act, Unz could be prosecuted for saying that, because saying that Israelis are committing genocide, or comparing then to Nazis, is forbidden.

As if that were not bad enough, conditions in Gaza are getting worse. Because of Israel’s constant bombing and interdiction of food shipments to Gaza, a famine is occurring there. According to Cindy McCain, the Director of the World Food Program, “There is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south.” Now it will reach the south, because Israel has just blocked food shipments to Rafah.

Should calling attention to horrendous news like this be an offense punishable by jail? You don’t have to be a libertarian to recognize that we can’t have a free society under the censorship conditions this Act would impose.

Many Jews would have to be banned by this standard. The eminent Jewish historian Omer Bartov said last November that “functionally and rhetorically we may be watching an ethnic cleansing operation that could quickly devolve into genocide.” His worst fears have come to pass since then. He too would be banned under the Act. So would Norman Finkelstein and John Mearsheimer.

Jews who criticize Israel’s war could also be banned under the Act. For example, some very religious Jews are anti-Zionist and don’t recognize Israel as a legitimate state. They could be charged with anti-Semitism. Also, what about Orthodox Jews who don’t recognize conversions to Judaism supervised by Reform rabbis? If they say that such converts aren’t Jewish, they could be charged under the Act as anti-Semitic. So could Reform rabbis who mock the Orthodox as benighted reactionaries.

One of the oddest aspects of this whole deplorable business is that the Act bans statements that the Jews have a lot of political power. One wonders how the Act passed by the astonishing margin of 320 to 91 without pressure from the Israeli Lobby. The sellout Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is bought and paid for. How then can the Act ban a statement that is obviously true and that the passage of the Act shows to be true?

One target of the Act is the heroic university students who are protesting what is going on in Gaza. The sponsors of the Act depict them as lawbreakers who need to be suppressed to preserve “law and order”, but students protests against criminal wars are part of the American tradition. Student protests against LBJ’s criminal war against Vietnam helped bring down his presidency. Libertarians and all other lovers of freedom should never forget that we are anti-war.

Of course the neocons behind the Act don’t see matters this way. These days, students often learn about news through social media platforms like TikTok. Many students learned about what was going on in Gaza though discussions on that platform, and because of this, the neocons in Congress voted to force TikTok’s parent company to sell it within 270 days; if not, it will be banned in America. As Dr. Ron Paul notes, “ The head of the Anti-Defamation League was actually caught on tape complaining about the “TikTok problem.’”

When we talk about the neocons, we should never forget that they got us into the disastrous invasion of Iraq under George W. Bush. The US government killed a million people –half of them children thanks to the US starvation blockade — and cost us trillions of dollars. Despite this—or maybe because of it—neocons like Robert Kagan still praise the Iraq war today. This is the sort of person behind the Act.

In my opinion, the evidence for Israeli genocide is overwhelming, and those who want to ban people from saying so are calling for a ban on the truth. But suppose you disagree. You should still oppose the Act. As John Stuart Mill said in his great On Liberty (1859): “But the peculiar evil of silencing an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race;. . .those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.”

The great Albert Jay Nock said about censorship that “this degrading enervation of a whole people is rather a heavy offset to the benefits gained by a policy of expediency.”

You shouldn’t be surprised that neocons like Kagan smear this great libertarian and anti-war crusader as an anti-Semite.

We should take the opportunity provided by the Act to engage in a full and frank discussion of American foreign policy. Why are we supplying billions of dollars in aid to a country engaging in genocide? Why are we supporting Ukraine in a war against Russia that could lead to a thermonuclear war? What groups benefit from these policies? By the way, if you are looking for real anti-Semites, you should start with the pro-Nazi Azov Brigade backing the tyrannical dictatorship of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Let’s do everything we can to get rid of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act and to return to our traditional foreign policy of non-intervention, following the guidance of Dr. Ron Paul and Murray Rothbard.

Good advice.

11 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

he tested the waters and said, yup, Internet still hates me......hard to block 1000s at a time......

At least he has his dog walking gig to fall back on 

Mr. Doyel is back, with a spot on commentary about the Pacers humiliating loss to the Knicks last night:  https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2024/05/15/knicks-are-disintegrating-but-pacers-disappear-in-nba-playoff-game-5/73692830007/

The more I watch these NBA playoff games the more I am convinced they are rigged. And by the players nonetheless.

2 hours ago, gonzoron said:

Yes, in the 8th grade. I would hope that every school offers a typing class.

That is good to hear.  The school I attended didn't offer a typing class until high school.

https://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/readers/2024/05/13/steroid-use-is-still-a-major-issue-in-schools-we-need-to-confront-it/73526479007/

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In Indiana, our sense of community and shared values are the bedrock of our Hoosier identity. However, a concerning trend threatens our youth — the rise in performance-enhancing drug use. This issue not only jeopardizes individual health but also undermines the fabric of our communities. 

From classrooms to football fields, the allure of PEDs has seeped into the lives of our youth, posing a significant threat to our collective well-being. Shockingly, one study showed 12% of boys reported using products to enhance appearance, muscle mass or strength. These statistics demand our immediate attention and action.

By prioritizing comprehensive education and prevention efforts, we can empower our youth to resist the pressures of PED use. Initiatives such as the Indiana Department of Education's "Healthy Schools" program and community-based organizations provide valuable resources for intervention. 

Throughout my years in high school and my undergraduate studies as a biology major, I've witnessed peers fall prey to the allure of performance-enhancing drugs. It's imperative that we raise awareness and advocate for further research on this issue.

As proud Hoosiers, it's our responsibility to confront this issue head-on and protect the future of our community. Together, let's stand united in our commitment to safeguarding our Hoosier identity and ensuring the wellbeing of generations to come.

Elias Kessilyas is from Carmel.

Is this really that bad of a problem in Indiana?  What can be done to prevent it?

2 hours ago, gonzoron said:

I do too. It's pretty important when discussing Education.

Did they offer a typing class at Howe Military?

2 hours ago, gonzoron said:

Ah, "too big" that makes more sense.

Glad to help. And I wish we could all be perfect typists like you.

https://reason.com/2024/05/10/nearly-half-of-all-masters-degrees-arent-worth-getting/

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Is college worth it? Well, it depends on what degree you're getting and where you're getting it, according to a new paper from the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), an economic opportunity think tank.

While more than three-quarters of all bachelor's degrees have a positive return on investment (ROI), according to the paper, master's and associate degrees are much riskier bets—with many costing students in the long run.

The paper, by Senior Fellow Preston Cooper, examined data from over 50,000 degree and certificate programs at thousands of American colleges and universities. Cooper's analysis looked at how much students were earning immediately after graduation, as well as how much they were making 10 years later. The paper also took into account a student's chance of dropping out when calculating a degree program's ROI.

In all, Cooper found that 31 percent of students are enrolled in a program with a negative ROI—meaning that "the earnings benefits of the degree are unlikely to fully compensate students for the cost and risk of pursuing post-secondary education."

 

However, different kinds of degrees were more likely to have a negative ROI than others. For example, 77 percent of bachelor's degrees and doctoral and professional degrees have a positive ROI. In contrast, just 57 percent of master's and associate degree programs have a positive ROI. 

For bachelor's degrees, fine arts, education, and biology programs had the lowest median ROI, while engineering, computer science, and nursing degrees gave students the highest long-term rewards.

However, where college students were enrolled also mattered when it came to ROI. For example, an English degree from the University of Virginia has a $581,925 positive return on investment—climbing to over $600,000 when only including students who graduated on time. In contrast, students at Virginia Commonwealth University—another public university—who majored in English have a negative $30,000 ROI, with just a $3,624 benefit for those who end up graduating on time.

"When choosing a college and program of study, students should evaluate several key variables that contribute to ROI. The most important is earnings after graduation," Cooper writes. "Besides starting salary, another critical factor is the institution's completion rate. While students' individual ability and motivation affects their likelihood of completion, research shows that college quality also has an impact on completion rates."

Cooper also pointed out just how much federal dollars go toward funding low-value degree programs. He found that 29 percent of the federal funding that went to the programs he studied went to programs with a negative ROI.

"That figure includes $37 billion in Pell Grants, $47 billion in loans to undergraduates, and $39 billion in loans to graduate students," Cooper writes. "Because ROI is negative for these programs, it's unlikely that most of those loan dollars will be repaid." 

This latest paper paints a detailed picture of the kinds of concerns prospective students and their families should take into account when deciding whether to enroll in college. While bachelor's degrees are still a good bet overall, students need to consider what they'll really get out of both the major they want to study and the school they've been accepted into.

A lot of useless degrees out there.  Yet people keep going into debt to earn them.  Insane.

32 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

I've never heard of that term. What does it mean?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_big_to_fail

Move Frankfort from the Monon (yuck, stupid name) to the Hoosier Heartland and you have a good list.

On 5/11/2024 at 6:24 PM, Titan32 said:

Come on man....if a private institution can't stand on its own feet then the government should subsidize it?

You obviously haven't heard of the term "Too Bid To Fail", an excuse governments have used to bail out/subsidize everything from financial institutions to car companies.   Wouldn't education fall into that same bailiwick?

On 5/11/2024 at 12:44 PM, Titan32 said:

So the government should reward private businesses for not using their services?  Perhaps the government should subsidize your health insurance company for you not participating in Obamacare. 

Governments already provide tax breaks to companies that provide non-Obamacare health insurance benefits to their employees. I believe it is called the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit.

On 5/10/2024 at 11:05 PM, Bobref said:

That is not exactly accurate. The IHSAA has been found to be a “state actor” in a number of legal decisions. It depends on the issue as to whether the IHSAA is considered an arm of the state, or a private association.

It is accurate enough for government work.

3 hours ago, olinecoach said:

One aspect that often gets missed in this overall discussion is the impact that the state legislature has on decisions like these. Constant pressure on the IHSAA to make changes to its policies (or not realizing the IHSAA already has a policy) play a large roll.

Since the IHSAA is not a government entity, but a private one, I am curious as what form this 'constant pressure' takes. 

10 hours ago, temptation said:

If Nikki Haley can pull 20% in a race she dropped out of two months ago, there’s no other logical explanation.

So you don't believe that votes for a 'zombie" Ms. Haley were in reality a protest vote against Mr. Trump,  that his political power in Indiana may not be as complete as his MAGAfans think it is?

1 hour ago, temptation said:

Didn't know Indiana had so many Ukrainian born residents.

?