The U.S. Department of Education proposed a rule that would cut off federal student loan access for higher-earning undergraduates and graduates from programs that fail new earnings benchmarks tied to post-graduation outcomes, with potential Pell Grant consequences for some programs. The proposal would be finalized as early as July 1. The earnings standards generally require bachelor’s-level outcomes to at least match earnings for workers with only a high school degree for undergraduate programs, and for graduate programs to clear a benchmark tied to comparable workers with only a bachelor’s degree. Program types considered at risk span short-term certificates and lower-early-career disciplines. Reporter cited Preston Cooper at the American Enterprise Institute as tracking hundreds of “at-risk” programs; the article estimates roughly 2,000 colleges have at least one program likely to fail the test, putting about 600,000 students at risk. Institutions with low early-career salary pathways could face reduced federal funding and enrollment instability. The rule is framed as accountability under the administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” changes, using IRS data to estimate graduates’ median earnings relative to the benchmark.