For generations, we have been told that higher education is the surest path to a better life. But too many students don’t feel that way, and often for good reason: They graduate with mountains of debt and few career prospects.
Last summer, Congress wisely ushered in a new era of accountability in higher education by passing the “A big, beautiful bill.” In addition to simplified repayment options for student borrowers, the law includes delinquency criteria, designed to ensure that higher education degrees put students on a better financial footing than if they stuck solely to a high school diploma.
These are important steps toward protecting students and taxpayers. Yet there is still one glaring exception to the “do no harm” standard: certificate programs. it often doesn’t pay off.
Certificate programs may not get a lot of attention, but they are the fastest growing higher education sector. Today, more than 1,280 programs serve more than 220,000 students each year, approximately 80% of whom are at for-profit institutions. Yet despite long-standing concerns about the predatory practices of many of these programs, Congress has continued to protect them from meaningful oversight.
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Take cosmetology schools, which make up 45 percent of certificate programs. For-Profit Cosmetology Schools arose for the first time in the 1920s, when Hollywood gave birth to the first “it girls” and with them, new trends in makeup and hairstyles. After World War II, federal policies such as the GI Bill and the Higher Education Act created large financial aid programs intended to bring more Americans into the middle class.
They also paved the way for predatory, for-profit schools to game the system. Cosmetology schools have unnecessarily raised tuition fees to garner more financial aid.
By the 1970s, banking regulators were sounding the alarm that cosmetology schools had become a major source of waste and abuse. In 1971, a loan officer testifying before Congress confirmed that the largest increases in loans had occurred among “trade schools and so-called beauty or barber schools.”
The loan officer noted that although cosmetology schools represented only a small but growing volume of the loan portfolio, they generated a significant share of defaults. “Who benefits from these programs? ” he request. “Do the students benefit, or do the school operators benefit? »
We still ask ourselves this question 50 years later. Today, cosmetology schools market themselves to working women and parents as a path to better pay and flexible hours. But the research watch that most cosmetology students enrolled today will likely earn less than someone with only a high school diploma.
Related: Congress exempted beauty schools from rules on how much graduates should earn
Cosmetology courses programs can reach $20,000 per year, but graduates of some schools often go to work earn just over $17,000 per yearwhile burdened by median student debt of $11,000. At the same time, many schools use exploitative business practices under the guise of training programs.
For example, it’s common for cosmetology schools to have paying students “work the floor,” essentially forcing students to cut hair and paint nails without pay, while the school pockets the profits.
If any vocational training program needed reform, it was cosmetology schools. This begs the question: why did they get a pass?
The answer lies, unsurprisingly, in Washington, D.C. As cosmetology schools grew in popularity, their powerful lobbying arm grew alongside them. At every turn, the American Association of Cosmetology Schools has lobbied against the basic accountability measures that other certificate programs in this country are held to.
In 2023, when the Department of Education required all career-oriented programs to meet minimum income and debt-to-income ratio standards, AACS filed a lawsuit to prevent the rule from being implemented. They claimed that unreported tips make up a significant portion of a cosmetology graduate’s income, making the “minimum income requirement” an unfair burden on these schools.
However, the research watch that nearly 90 percent of salons actually report tips on W-2 forms. So it turns out the burden was fair after all.
And what’s worse is that these schools often prey on low-income women and women of color, exacerbating cycles of poverty for the very students they claim to help.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” was an opportunity for Congress to end the legal battle over reforming a wasteful industry. Instead, it granted an exception to certificate programs, and therefore cosmetology schools.
Related: How Cosmetology Schools Are Driving Student Debt
Fortunately, the Ministry of Education “do no harm” The proposal would use existing authority to hold all programs accountable for their revenue. With a finale rule on the provisions of the anticipated bill by July 1the public debate continues, especially as cosmetology schools lobby to influence the outcome.
Congress should revise the underlying law to make clear its intent to make all programs – including certificate programs – subject to income standards. In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Education must continue to be tough and enforce regulations that can control low-performing students.
If a program consistently leaves its graduates worse off, it should lose access to federal student loans, just as an associate’s or bachelor’s program would. In this way, schools that offer real added value will survive, while others will be forced to reform or close down.
It’s time for cosmetology schools – and other certificate programs like them – to prove that behind the glitter of big promises, there can be gold.
Kelly McManus is executive vice president of education at Arnold Ventures. Arnold Ventures was among the many backers of Tthe Hechinger report.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story about certificate programs was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register with Hechinger weekly newsletter.
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