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The trade association representing cosmetology schools is suing the Biden administration to block its new gainful-employment rule from taking effect.
The lawsuit from the American Association of Cosmetology Schools, filed Dec. 22 in the Northern District of Texas, argues that the rule would jeopardize the “very existence” of cosmetology schools and that it uses flawed measures to determine whether graduates of career education programs are gainfully employed. The Republic Report first reported on the lawsuit.
The rule, which would take effect in July, measures whether graduates earn more than the average high school graduate in their state as well as enough money to repay their student loans. Programs that fail either of those tests twice in a three-year period could lose access to federal financial aid. Most cosmetology schools would fail under the new rule.
“The consequences of this misconceived Final Rule are dramatic,” the complaint says.
The American Association of Cosmetology Schools has challenged previous iterations of the gainful-employment rule as well. DuVall’s School of Cosmetology, based in Texas, is also part of the lawsuit.
“Although the Department’s two prior attempts at similar ‘gainful employment’ rules were repudiated by other federal courts, the defendants have doubled down in the final rule by promulgating the strictest, most difficult-to-satisfy ‘gainful employment’ standards to date while, at the same time, removing classic procedural safeguards, granting irreconcilable exemptions to certain schools/locales, and acknowledging that their data are flawed,” the complaint says.
