The U.S. Department of Education proposed and began finalizing rules that would cut off federal student loan access for higher-education programs whose graduates do not meet required earnings thresholds. The policy would apply earnings-test benchmarks for undergraduate programs against workers with only a high school degree, and would set a higher bar for graduate programs based on comparisons to bachelor’s-degree earnings. In certain cases, programs could also lose access to Pell Grants if they repeatedly fail the test. The article notes the potential footprint: while most students appear to be in programs likely to pass, thousands of institutions have at least one program potentially at risk, putting hundreds of thousands of students into the overlap of affordability and credential-value scrutiny. Administrators are bracing for implementation timelines and new compliance reporting burdens across federal aid and program approval mechanisms.