A new law holds colleges accountable if their grads don’t earn more than $36,000 a year

A new federal law takes effect this month requiring colleges to prove their graduates earn at least thirty-six thousand dollars a year—roughly what someone with only a high school diploma makes in California—or students will lose access to federal loans. According to CalMatters, about three hundred California college programs are currently failing that test, with most concentrated in cosmetology and the arts. Fine arts graduates from the California Institute of the Arts, for instance, earn just under thirty thousand dollars four years after graduation. Schools have until July twenty twenty-eight to demonstrate their programs meet the standard. The rule represents another federal push to hold colleges accountable for graduate outcomes, but as CalMatters reports, unlike prior regulatory efforts that were rolled back or circumvented, this one was written into law by Congress—giving it more enforcement teeth.

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