Trump’s New College Loan Rule Puts Theatre Degrees at Risk

by Chris Peterson

Donald Trump’s administration has apparently found another way to measure the value of a college education.

How much money are you making after graduation?

Under new Department of Education regulations, undergraduate programs will be judged in part by whether their graduates earn more than working adults whose education stopped with a high school diploma. A program that fails the earnings test in two out of three years can lose access to federal Direct Loans for at least two years.

For theatre programs, this could be a serious problem.

The Department’s own estimates have drama and fine arts among the fields with some of the highest failure rates under this system. In the final rule, the Department even acknowledged that bachelor’s degrees in fine arts are expected to fail at relatively high rates.

I have a huge problem with that.

I completely understand questioning the price of college. Tuition is outrageous at plenty of schools. There are many good fiscal and philosophical arguments about whether the taxpayer should fund loans that will (at best) take 20+ years to pay back.

But there will be adverse consequences to the arts should this policy take hold.

Theatre students whose parents can pay for their tuition will be unaffected. The rich will continue to be represented in the arts regardless of whether they have access to federal loans

But everybody else? The kids from the middle class, the kids from already underrepresented minority communities, the kids who experience life and the arts without means, and who are desperate to tell stories to their communities?

Federal loans are often the only way into arts programs. Some kids will figure out a way, probably through scholarships and financial aid (more on this later), but many won’t. And the arts will suffer as a result.

The first failures under the new system can occur beginning July 1, 2027, and programs could lose Direct Loan eligibility as early as July 1, 2028.

I don’t see how making it harder for lower-income students to enter theatre programs improves theatre education.

It just makes an already expensive path even harder to access.

Colleges will have to step up here, especially colleges with hefty endowments. Scholarships for arts programs should increase, as should financial aid. Oftentimes, colleges make these decisions based on who is likely to give back to the school in one way or another. That logic should have an endpoint when considering programs at risk of losing federal loans, like the arts,

Unfortunately, the Trump administration has become increasingly efficient at creating new barriers for people less fortunate. We already have enough barriers keeping talented people out of the arts. Now colleges must step up to keep the arts healthy.