Sooooo... as a professor:

Under the new budget law's severe loan caps, I'm seriously concerned that a lot of universities are either going to have to radically cut like... everything, or they're just going to close.

A lot of people didn't notice, but going forward, undergraduate students are only going to be able to borrow a maximum of $20,000 a year, up to a lifetime cap of $65,000. I know that sounds like a lot, but the flagship public university near me runs a tuition of $31,700 *per year* before non-loan student aid, but also before housing, food, and so forth. Even mine, a midsized non-prestige university, runs $14k.

There's going to be a lot of Very Average students who don't qualify for Pell Grants (which were also cut) and who come from families that don't have a significant ability to support them financially. For them? The dream of college at a great school probably just died, especially at the best universities.

And before you mention athletics or academic scholarships: think about that flagship public university I mentioned. The only way that can realistically even survive in this system is to slash tuition. Where do you think that money is going to come from? Athletics. Academic scholarships. Dramatic cuts to staff and administrators.

I'm not an economist. I could very well be wrong.

But like

I cannot see how they make the math math.

How quickly will California cops force the legislature to ban this service that helps people ID rogue officers? Guessing days, not weeks.

https://www.404media.co/fucklapd-com-lets-anyone-use-facial-recognition-to-instantly-identify-cops/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter

This is the saddest July 4 in my memory. The United States is plunging into vile right-wing dictatorship, in large part because once-vital institutions -- including Big Journalism -- have chosen to be quislings when courage was needed.

It's not too late to reverse our decline, but it's close.