President Donald Trump is banning student loans for degrees that don’t make enough money after graduation.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) will force colleges to adopt a new accountability system that measures whether college graduates earn more money than workers with a high school education.
Degrees that will be impacted include art, music, social work, cosmetology, medical assistant, religious studies, some mental health degrees and more.
Students must decide whether pursuing a liberal arts degree will translate into a “real-world job” that earns enough to buy a house.
Under the Student Tuition and Transparency System, known as STATS, the federal government will evaluate financial assistance for undergraduate programs. Graduates must earn more money than a student with just a high school diploma.
Graduates with lower earnings than a typical GED student will show that the undergraduate program is too expensive and does not provide the education needed to make a decent living.
Colleges will be forced to lower costs or drop the curriculum entirely.
“We are holding colleges accountable for leaving students worse off than if they never enrolled,” a DOE spokesperson said in a statement on Monday. The DOE said too many graduates are “saddled” with “unmanageable debt that was never going to translate into a real-world job.”