The New York Times is reporting that the evolutionary biology major has been dropped from the U.S. Department of Education’s list of eligible majors for educational grants. So if you’re a low-income student applying for a Pell or other federal grant and you want to study evolutionary biology, the feds won’t pay for it. When contacted, a Department of Education spokesperson claimed that it was a “clerical error” and would be fixed right away. That was last Tuesday. I just checked out the official list (online PDF here) and there’s just a blank line at sub section 26.1303 where the major is supposed to be. The Times quoted Lawrence M. Krauss, a physicist at Case Western Reserve University, who said: “Removing that one major is not going to make the nation stupid, but if this really was removed, specifically removed, then I see it as part of a pattern to put ideology over knowledge.” A new dark ages?

Update 9/1/2006: Kudos to the Department of Education for adding it back in…