US Arts Education Faces Existential Threat from Trump's Earnings-Based Loan Rules
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump enacted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which significantly alters federal student financial aid, now referred to as the Working Families Tax Cut Act. This legislation eliminates graduate and professional PLUS loans, sets limits on direct loans that penalize non-professional degrees (with the exception of arts), and introduces an earnings-based accountability system beginning July 1, 2027. Initial data from January 2026 indicates alarming failure rates in arts programs, with graduate fine arts at 44.1%. Critics, including Lee Ann Scotto Adams and economist Richard Paulsen, contend that these changes undermine arts education and accessibility. The act will phase in PLUS loan cancellations and loan caps starting July 1, 2026.
Key facts
- Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) on 4 July 2025, now known as the Working Families Tax Cut Act.
- The act terminates graduate and professional PLUS loans, imposes loan caps, and introduces an earnings-based accountability framework effective 1 July 2027.
- Preliminary estimates show 44.1% of graduate fine and studio arts programmes would fail the earnings test.
- Associate degree programmes face failure rates of 79.4% for film/video/photographic arts and 73.8% for fine and studio arts.
- Bachelor's programmes: 17.7% graphic communications, 12% film/video/photographic arts, 11% music, 8.5% fine and studio arts would fail.
- Florida A&M University is closing its studio fine arts programme.
- Indiana Senate Bill 199 requires state institutions to request approval for low-earning degree programmes.
- Richard Paulsen found student debt reduces likelihood of working in arts by over 25% and as an artist by over 30%.
Entities
Institutions
- Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (Snaap)
- Juilliard School
- New England Conservatory
- Pratt Institute
- University of Michigan
- Indiana University Bloomington
- Florida A&M University
- Arizona State University's Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts
- Department of Education
Locations
- United States
- Tallahassee
- Indiana
- Bloomington