Similar sentiments were echoed by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, the investigations manager for the higher education program at New America. The think tank has published extensive research and investigative reports detailing the systemic issues within the cosmetology school sector. Bauer-Wolf pointed to the real-world consequences of poor oversight, noting that many beauty schools provide misleading information to prospective students.
“Last year, when we investigated and secret shopped at beauty schools that NACCAS accredited, they would regularly tell us wrong or incomplete information,” Bauer-Wolf said. “Even if schools were not being malicious, their mistakes can still mislead students and skew life-changing decisions.”
Bauer-Wolf’s research has highlighted a troubling trend in the cosmetology sector: high debt loads for students entering a field that often pays near-minimum wage at the entry level. This economic reality has placed many NACCAS-accredited schools in the crosshairs of a new federal earnings test designed to ensure that vocational programs provide a sufficient return on investment.
Data suggests that the cosmetology sector is particularly vulnerable to these new accountability measures. More than 90 percent of undergraduate certificate programs in cosmetology are expected to fail the federal earnings test, which measures whether graduates earn enough to reasonably pay back their student loans. If these programs fail the test in consecutive years, they lose access to federal student aid—a development that could lead to a wave of school closures regardless of NACCAS’s accreditation status.
“As we have documented, beauty schools, especially for-profit chains, often do not lead students to quality jobs—in fact, they often struggle to pay off debts from these types of programs,” Bauer-Wolf said, calling the Department’s recent action "gratifying."
The confluence of the NACCAS growth freeze and the impending earnings test results suggests a period of contraction and consolidation for the beauty school industry. For decades, the sector has operated with relatively little federal interference, but the Department’s latest move indicates that the era of "accreditation by default" is coming to an end.
For the 300 institutions with pending applications, the future remains uncertain. These schools must now either wait for NACCAS to resolve its compliance issues within the next year or seek accreditation from a different agency—a process that is both time-consuming and expensive.
NACCAS officials did not respond to requests for comment regarding the Department’s decision or their plan for the upcoming 12-month corrective period. As the agency begins its year of probation, the eyes of federal regulators, policy analysts, and thousands of students will be on the commission to see if it can transform itself into the rigorous watchdog the Department of Education is now demanding.
