How Trump’s signature bill could make arts education in the US even more expensive

A policy and spending bill signed into law by US President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025—H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now referred to as the Working Families Tax Cut Act—has prompted concern among arts-education experts about higher costs and reduced access to federal aid. The law ends graduate and professional PLUS loans and imposes new caps within the direct loans program that disadvantage fields not on the Department of Education’s list of professional-degree programs, which excludes arts and culture. It also creates an earnings-based “accountability” or “do no harm” test determining whether programs remain eligible for federal financial aid, a framework Lee Ann Scotto Adams of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (Snaap) criticized as ill-suited to artists and designers. Implementation is staged: loan changes began July 1, 2026, and the earnings test takes effect July 1, 2027. Preliminary government estimates cited in the article suggest high failure rates for arts programs, including 17.7% of graphic communications bachelor’s programs, 12% of film/video/photographic arts, 11% of music, 8.5% of fine and studio arts (including programs at Juilliard and the New England Conservatory), and 44.1% of fine and studio arts graduate programs, with associate-degree failure rates reaching 79.4% for film/video/photographic arts and 73.8% for fine and studio arts.

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