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The government is pulling student loan money from worthless college degree programs — and it’s about time

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Students will no longer be able to take out federal loans to pay for degree programs that fail to provide them a return on investment, thanks to a new federal policy that went into effect on July 1.

It’s a response to a shocking fact: Graduates of more than 800 college programs across the country — including at institutions like the University of South California and New York City’s New School — make less than the average high-school grad four years after getting a degree, despite all that time, effort and tuition money.

Now the American government will have no part in propping up degree programs that may not even lead to a livable wage. A provision of the Big Beautiful Bill cuts them off from federal aid access if they can’t break the non-grad salary baseline.

Programs that fail the test for two out of three consecutive years will no longer be able to bury kids in debt — at least not on the taxpayer’s dime.

These Big Beautiful Bill revisions represent “the biggest set of changes to financial aid in decades,” according to Robert Kelchen, head of the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. And change is much needed.

Teens and twentysomethings should be protected by the federal government from making a catastrophic financial decision, like taking on debt to finance a degree that ultimately could decrease their........

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