Original article: Trump’s school loan rule threatens beauty students’ path to a career
The Palm Beach Post, By John Pacenti, 09-24-26
*As part of the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida, the story also published in Florida Today*
BOYNTON BEACH — Daniela Street and Angelina Rhodes came from single-parent households with limited income. For them and tens of thousands of other young people — most of them women, many of them people of color — beauty school offers a path to a profession and a living wage.
Street and Rhodes rely on federal student loans to go to Robert Fiance Beauty School in Boynton Beach.
“God forbid, this didn’t work out — I wouldn’t have been able to have money to go to another school. So that financial aid meant a lot,” Rhodes said.
Street concurred. “I didn’t have to pay for anything. I had just lost my father, so he wasn’t able to help me pay for school. I wouldn’t even have been able to go without the loans.”
Those loans now may be in jeopardy.
The U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration is changing requirements. A non-degree vocational program must produce students who, within four years, earn the equivalent of a high school graduate who has been in the workforce for a decade or more.
If a program fails the “do no harm” test two out of three consecutive years, it loses access to Pell Grants and other federal school loans — the majority of financing for these beauty schools.
The industry and school owners warn that over 90% of cosmetology, esthetic and barbering programs could lose eligibility because the Trump administration’s formula fails to account for unreported cash tips and early-career business building.
“It’s a real challenge, and so it’s a very existential threat for our schools,” said John D. Russell, executive director for the American Association of Career Schools (AACS) in Washington, D.C.
Federal government has always tangled with trade schools
Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said the Trump administration is hitting the “hard reset button” on higher education and holding universities and trade schools accountable for low incomes. He noted rising rates of default and delinquency in the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
“If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers,” Kent said.
The idea of holding universities and trade schools accountable is bipartisan, going back to the Obama administration. The new Trump rule is based on one that withstood a court challenge under President Joe Biden. But the standard includes a slew of apple-and-orange comparisons that have put a career path in jeopardy.
“These vocational programs have been looked upon kind of like a stepchild, that going to beauty school isn’t worthy of the taxpayer dollars, but it really is. It’s a $5 billion a year industry,” said Bryan Black, owner of five Paul Mitchell Schools in Florida and Michigan.
Beauty school offers a career path for those who didn’t have the grades or the passion to go to a four-year university. He said his daughter was a good example: She was a poor student, but in beauty school she flourished and is now a sought-after stylist.
“A lot of gals come from socioeconomic backgrounds where mom and dad are struggling, and they don’t have the wherewithal to pay privately,” Black said. “They’re not salutatorian baccalaureate gals. They are not honor roll society gals. They’re the creative ones.”
Beauty students say they couldn’t go to school without federal loans
A recent morning at Boca Beauty Academy in Boca Raton found students buzzing around, grabbing coffee and chit-chatting before learning tools of the trade. A class on applying gel nails is filled to capacity, while upstairs students learn to style and dye hair on wigs on mannequins — and a few real volunteers.
Cristelle Jean Baptiste says that, as a mother, federal loans are absolutely essential for her to go to school. “I don’t think it’s fair because we’re also a career,” Baptiste says about the Education Department proposal. “We’re not just doing people’s hair or doing their face, nails, or makeup. We’re being therapists.”
Instructor Letty Velázquez added, “This type of industry gives individuals a great opportunity.”
David Colozzi, the school’s president, said about 55% of its funding comes through federal loans for its students. “We have some rock star graduates,” he said. “All of our programs lead to licensure.”
Once graduated, students sometimes open their own salons or lease chairs. Some students become massage therapists.
“It’s not a straight line,” he said. “How are they going to measure a high school grad’s income level and compare it to our graduates? It’s a difficult thing.”
He said the industry has seen several iterations of the “gainful employment” standard, forcing the small school to go over thousands of records to compile data that never ultimately came to fruition.
Could no-tax-on-tips save beauty schools under new standard for loans?
The AACS filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Education in 2023 challenging the gainful employment rule at the time. Again, it said the government was deflating beauty school graduates’ true earnings by undercounting tips.
The lawsuit noted that 50% of cosmetology students rely on Pell Grants and a large percentage of those students identify as people of color. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled in favor of the DOE’s reading of gainful in October 2025.
Since then, President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill passed, removing taxes on tips.
“The hope is that the no-tax-on-tips provision will lead to more individuals who are working reporting their tipped income, which will more accurately reflect the true earning potential of individuals getting a certificate in cosmetology, barbering and massage,” Russell said.
Students are taught they need to report tips to show their true income and qualify for loans to open their salons.
The challenge to meet the standard remains high because the Education Department evaluates whether a program’s median graduate is comparable to a working adult between the ages of 25 and 34 who holds a high school diploma. As a result, a 22-year-old beauty school graduate entering the industry will compete against workers who may have been employed for 16 years.
“There’s a big gap between what you earn at Year 4 and Year 16,” Russell said. “What’s particularly unique to cosmetology and barbering – really anything that’s a personal service – is you build a clientele and book over time.”
Furthermore, universities are held to the same standard as beauty schools to qualify for federal loans: the high school diploma worker. “You’re taking certificate programs and four-year bachelor’s degree programs, and holding them to the same standard.”
Apples and oranges: Could salary comparisons sink the beauty industry?
According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, annual income for a young adult between 25 and 34 with a high school diploma is approximately $42,000 nationally.
That salary drops to $37,044 for Florida residents and even further by gender. Women made 26% lower salaries: $36,700.
“It’s kind of like expecting from a brand new little apple tree that’s been planted compared to a mature tree that’s been there forever,” said Black, who owns five Paul Mitchell Schools. ”The little apple tree takes a little while to get going, but once they do, they can really make good money.”
Black says he has talked to owners of other Paul Mitchell Schools who have said they would shut down if the new rule goes into effect. And as a result, a viable career path for young Americans would be closed.
“We really feel that our certificate program in cosmetology, esthetics, the skin care and barbering profession – they’re serving a population that really shouldn’t be discriminated against,” Black said.
