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The U.S. Department of Education recently that details how the Department would implement provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This rule is a long overdue step to set a basic floor for higher education accountability. At its core, the rule is simple: if a program wants to maintain access to federal student loans, its graduates should earn more than someone with only a high school diploma. 

But as soon as the rule was released, , urging beauty and barbering schools and to gut the accountability provisions entirely so that outcomes data is used for informational purposes only. This isn’t new for this sector. As our research has shown, the cosmetology education industry is backed by a powerful lobby that tries to preserve its access to federal aid despite a poor track record of being good stewards of that investment. , it has blamed the demographics of their students as a driving reason for their poor outcomes, and has lobbied to keep licensure hours high, while fighting to keep low-cost providers and pathways at community colleges or through registered apprenticeships out of cosmetology education altogether.

It should not be a surprise that industry advocates are advancing claims about this new accountability rule that don’t hold up. Just over 9 in 10 cosmetology and barbering programs would fail the new earnings premium metric, according to the American Association of Cosmetology Schools’s This will likely cause programmatic and institutional closures for those reliant on federal student loans to operate. But these rules are designed to ensure that students enrolling in programs that result in low earnings are not taking on taxpayer-funded loans they may be unlikely to repay.

Below, we break down falsehoods in the industry’s most common claims:

Claim: These rules will shut down the cosmetology pipeline
Fact: the pipeline is more than just programs that receive federal student aid

The cosmetology and barbering education pipeline is broader than programs that receive federal student loans. . Alternative pathways such as and registered apprenticeships allow students to train for licensure at low or no cost, sometimes while earning an income. The question isn’t whether cosmetology and barbers will continue to be trained, it’s whether taxpayers should continue subsidizing programs through federal student loans that consistently leave students with low wages that don’t even surpass a high school graduate. Even if the program fails new earnings tests, it may still maintain access to the Pell Grant to help students defray costs so long as a majority of a school’s revenue isn’t from failing programs. Programs can, and will, still operate, but access to federal student loans should come with a basic expectation of being able to pay those loans off. 

Claim: Earnings data are flawed because cosmetologists underreport tips received
Fact: Unreported income is not enough to change outcomes

The “hidden income” argument to avoid accountability. And now that argument is even more meaningless with no more taxes on tips through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. However, even before the no tax on tips, most barbers and cosmetologists reported tips on W-2s. And showed that unreported income only accounts for about an 8 percent increase in earnings, which is not enough for a program to pass the earnings test. This sort of independent research should be trusted over the by 82 percent, which is just not credible given the administrative data available.

Claim: The rule disproportionately impacts programs that serve women and minority students
Fact: The rule protects women and minority students from taking on debt for programs that they may never be able to afford repaying

Approximately , including large shares of students of color and parenting students. One in three cosmetology students are parents. Despite their major presence in cosmetology programs, these students are often poorly served and left saddled with debt that they struggle to repay, making it a real challenge to provide for their families. This new accountability rule is intended to , not harm their beauty career aspirations. The same actors warning about the “harm” of this rule to women and minority student populations are the same ones who have historically resisted change that would strengthen these students’ outcomes. The Education Department has found that they are the ones who , and then blame their resulting poor outcomes on student demographics. Outcomes in cosmetology lag behind similar programs that have a similar racial and gender balance, such as practical nursing and dental support, which .

Claim: Graduates choose part-time work, so earnings are low
Fact: Loans must be repaid regardless of whether a graduate works part-time or not

If typical earnings in a field are too low to support manageable repayment, it’s not worth a student going into debt. After all, repayment obligations never adjust based on hours worked. Federal student loans should not support programs that consistently leave students with unaffordable debt relative to what they are likely to earn. In an occupation that potentially leads to mostly part-time employment, students should not have to take on substantial debt to access that training. Instead, programs should be structured and priced in a way that reflects realistic labor market outcomes. The new accountability rules could drive reform of the cosmetology education system by lowering tuition costs, and promoting innovative pathways to the career such as registered apprenticeships and career and technical education at the high school level.

Ultimately, the claims made by the cosmetology education industry underscore the need for accountability that aligns program costs with real-world outcomes. Accountability is about establishing a commonsense minimum bar. Strong accountability standards help steer students toward better options and push underperforming programs to improve and innovate or risk losing access to taxpayer dollars. That innovation could include lower tuition, different pathways, or apprenticeship-based models that reflect real workforce conditions for the barbering and cosmetology sector. The objective isn’t to shrink the field of cosmetology, it’s to make sure it delivers real value for students who feel called to the profession.