Student loans have been a noose around the neck of many college grads for years, but the Department of Education is enacting reforms to help prevent more young people from falling into this debt trap. Ironically, some colleges that are supposed to serve students are furious because it means their taxpayer-funded gravy train is coming to a halt.

The federal student loan program is supposed to operate on the simple principle of allowing a young person to finance an education today and repay the cost out of a higher future income. That principle has been wantonly violated for years by colleges and universities, institutions that lured young people into mountains of debt with no prospects of repayment.

That’s why the Trump administration’s new earnings accountability rule will protect future college students. It requires undergraduate programs to show that their graduates out-earn typical high-school diploma-holders, while graduate programs must top the earnings of typical bachelor’s degree-holders.

If a program fails this test in two out of three consecutive years, it loses eligibility for federal direct loans. Students can still choose those majors, but they won’t be able to go deeply into debt via the federal student-loan programs.

Whereas the Biden administration sought to foist the repayment of student loans onto the........

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