Donald Trump Slammed by Educators After Announcing Policy That Will Revoke Financial Aid for Students Whose Majors Don't Lead to Higher Pay

According to a Los Angeles Times report, Donald Tump's administration has finalized a sweeping Earnings Accountability rule (often called the "Do No Harm" standard) that ties federal student loan eligibility directly to post-graduation income.

The policy implements an "earnings premium test" that penalizes specific higher education programs if their alumni do not hit a minimum salary threshold.

The Department of Education said it will cross-reference IRS data to track how much graduates make four years after completing a program.

Typical graduates must earn more than the median high school graduate of a similar age in their state and more than the average worker with only a bachelor's degree in the same field and state.

If a program fails this metric for two out of three years, it loses access to federal Direct Loans for at least two years. Furthermore, if more than 50 percent of a college's programs fail the test, the entire institution risks losing all federal financial aid.

The rule does not explicitly target fields by name, but because it relies strictly on baseline financial return, it unevenly affects historically lower-paying professions.

According to analysts and the Los Angeles Times, the college programs at highest risk of failure include fine/studio arts, music, and English literature; social work, early childhood education, and mental health counseling; and cosmetology, massage therapy, culinary arts, and dental assisting.

For-profit college programs face the greatest initial volatility, with projections estimating a 33 percent program failure rate, compared to a 3 percent failure rate for public and non-profit institutions.

The government is not banning these degrees; schools can still offer them, and students can still major in them. However, students cannot fund them with federal student loans.

The policy officially goes into effect in July 2027, when the first round of data calculations takes place. Because a program must fail the metric sequentially, the earliest any college major will actually lose access to federal student loans is the 2028–2029 academic year.

The move has drawn outrage from educators and even right-wing advocates.

“In certain fields of study, especially in the humanities, whether or not that program has been successful and has done a really good job in its educational mission might not be all that directly tied to immediate earnings potential,” Stanford professor Jonathan Gienapp told The New Republic.

Gregory Baylor, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit deemed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a designated hate group, was also incensed, telling TNR, “The government shouldn’t punish people who pursue socially valuable callings just because, in its judgment, they don’t earn enough money."

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, directly blasted the real-world implications of the rule in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, saying, “We need social workers. Whether it's the fentanyl epidemic or homelessness in L.A., we need people who can work on the street with people who need it the most."

James Kvaal, president of The Institute for College Access and Success, speaking on the broader ongoing battle regarding baseline earnings metrics, warned of the heavy burden on students when structural faults in fields are ignored.

Trump's law, he said, "Would be costly for both students and taxpayers... more than 350,000 students graduated from substandard programs with nearly $7.5 billion in unaffordable debt."