The following letter and call to action by the American Association of Cosmetology Schools is being circulated by salon owners concerned about the future of the cosmetology education and the industry. Find out how you can help. 

If you have not already done so, please consider providing your comments to the proposed Gainful Employment Act. If you recall, 13 years ago the changes that were made to the Gainful Employment Act resulted in the permanent closure of many of our cosmetology schools and other institutes of post-secondary education.

The current proposed version of the Gainful Employment Act could terminate access to federal financial aid for career training programs, such as cosmetology schools, because the current Administration believes that these careers routinely leave graduates with unaffordable debt burdens or earnings that are no higher than workers with a high school education.

Bottom line...if students are not given access to federal funding for a student loan to attend cosmetology school, where does that leave our future workforce?

School owners are concerned that if this Act passes, this is the next step towards the deregulation of our industry. If 70+% of our schools closed, as predicted by the passage of this Act, then there will not be enough schools left to provide licensure, therefore, making accessibility to licensure too difficult and obsolete.  We all know the problems that could occur with unlicensed service providers and the damage it will cause to our industry reputation. 

Of all of the threats that we have had to our industry, especially in the past five years, this one concerns me most and that’s saying a lot since we’re still coming off a pandemic!!! When the last version of the Gainful Employment Act passed 13 years ago, we lost 2/3 of our cosmetology schools in St. Louis and we lost most of our trade schools and all of our culinary schools. Most of the US was similarly impacted!

Please take a moment to submit your comments about the importance of the sustainability of this industry and please emphasize how well compensated your teams are because the current administration believes that cosmetology graduates are left with unaffordable debt and poor career prospects. 

To find out how to add your comments to this proposed legislation, CLICK HERE, and follow the directions. 

For more information, check out the US Department of Education's website.