Why an earnings test raises uncomfortable questions about art, professional practice, and the value of a degree.Image source: Adobe StockThe Price of a DegreeThe federal government has decided to ask a question higher education has long avoided. What is a degree worth? Under the U.S. Department of Education’s new earnings-accountability framework, undergraduate programs will be judged partly by whether their graduates earn more than workers whose highest level of education is a high school diploma. Most of the framework takes effect July 1, 2027, and a program that fails the earnings benchmark in two of three consecutive award years can lose access to federal Direct Loans. It is a tidy, if uncomfortable, answer to a question that has never been tidy.Now, the knee-jerk reaction within higher education may be to reject this framework entirely. But there is an economic logic worth...