Under the new rules, students enrolled in “failing” college programs would become ineligible for federal financial aid.

The regulations were introduced through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump in 2025. According to Fox News, the Department of Education’s Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) includes an earnings premium test to determine federal loan eligibility for college programs. Lawmakers said the measures are intended to protect students from low-earning degrees.

Under the metric, an undergraduate program is considered failing if graduates do not earn more than the median income of a high school graduate aged 25 to 34. Graduate programs are measured against the median earnings of those holding a bachelor’s degree.

The Education Department said it will use IRS and U.S. Census data to assess earnings four years after students complete their degrees.

Christian college leaders, however, argue the metrics would disproportionately affect religious programs and worsen the nationwide clergy shortage.

"It’s an existential threat to the future of religious higher education in the US — I don’t think that’s an overstatement," Philip Dearborn, head of the Association for Biblical Higher Education, told Christianity Today (CT). "It came out of left field."

Dearborn and nearly two dozen presidents of Christian colleges met with lawmakers in Washington to protest the rule.

"Financial outcomes matter, but they don’t totally measure whether an education is worthwhile," David Hoag, president of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), also told the publication.

According to CT, 53% of bachelor’s degrees in religion and religious studies would be classified as “failing” under the new metric, based on government estimates.