Funding At Risk: OBBB

A Call to Strengthen Career Readiness  in College Dance Programs

As part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” The Department of Education is proposing significant changes to how certificate and degree programs are evaluated and further their eligibility to participate in the federal student aid system. Under the proposed framework, degree programs would be required to demonstrate that most graduates—measured four years after completion—earn more than the average high-school graduate with no postsecondary education. Programs that repeatedly fail to meet this benchmark could lose access for future students to Title IV federal grants and student loans.

As put forth this will involve applying this earnings standard to all undergraduate programs, regardless of institutional sector, including both bachelor degree programs and certificate programs as part of the Higher Education Act (HEA) accountability discussions.

Most bachelor’s degree programs are not currently at risk under this proposal. However, among those identified as potentially failing the earnings test are several performing arts degrees, including dance. As dance educators we know our field is not lucrative, but we do need to prepare students for sustainable lives.

There are many legitimate concerns about the current administration’s approach to higher education accountability and there are contradictions embedded in several of these proposals including the proposed dissolution of the Department of Education while simultaneously expanding and intensifying the department's regulatory reach. 

As I observe reactions from colleagues and online higher-education forums, I worry that indignation alone could prevent us from addressing the underlying issue in a way that genuinely serves our students. I write this as a career counselor for artists, a college admissions advisor, a higher education consultant and as a dancer, let us be clear: I am not a tax professional or financial advisor or economic policy expert.

I offer the following in the spirit of the dance studio. As we often say when offering feedback on choreography: take what is useful, toss out the rest. 

Points of agreement

At its core, the proposal ties federal aid eligibility to earnings data. The Department would compare the median earnings of graduates who used federal aid (grants or loans) four years after graduation—using administrative data sources such as the College Scorecard—with benchmark earnings for high-school graduates at the state or national level.

If a program fails this test, students enrolled in that program could lose access to Pell Grants and federal student loans. I strongly agree with colleagues that this is where the greatest danger lies. Removing access to federal aid risks reshaping programs such that they primarily serve higher-income, full-pay students, or pushing lower-income students into private lending markets that are historically more predatory and expensive. 

Either outcome would significantly undermine equity and access in dance education.

Where I Believe We Need to Go Further

Common reactions I hear include: “They don’t understand what we do,”“College isn’t vocational training,” or “This country doesn’t value the arts.”

These critiques are grounded in truth. However, we do our students a disservice if we stop there. Even if the metric is flawed, the underlying question is one we should take seriously: Are dancers prepared to build sustainable lives after college?

The benchmark itself is also revealing. Average earnings for high-school-only workers hover around $38,000 per year, a figure that is close to a living-wage threshold in some low cost of living areas, but in the cities dancers gravitate towards is unsustainable.⁴ If our graduates earn less than this four years out, that is a problem worth addressing, independent of political threats and flawed policies. 

Income Underreporting Among Dancers and Freelancers

One potential issue often overlooked in these discussions is income underreporting, particularly among freelancers and self-employed workers. Research consistently shows that self-employment income is underreported at substantially higher rates than wage and salary income, with estimates suggesting that roughly 30% of self-employment income is not captured in official records.

This underreporting is especially common in informal or cash-based work—precisely the kinds of income streams many dancers rely on early in their careers, such as teaching private lessons, freelance performance, choreography, or short-term contracts. As a result, federal earnings data may significantly underestimate the true economic activity of dance graduates.

Dance majors who take coursework in entrepreneurship, personal finance, arts business management, or freelance professional practices are better equipped to track and report income accurately, manage taxes and estimated payments, document business expenses, and navigate irregular cash flow. While it has the immediate discomfort of slighting increasing someone’s tax burden, and no dancer I know enjoys paying taxes, it also ensures that dancers’ labor is visible, documented, and sustainable and impacts longer term sustainability like the calculated basis for ones social security payments. 

Encouraging Double Majors Without Devaluing Dance

Most dancers will not be able to rely on a single income source. Even dancers with company contracts have side gigs. Helping students identify secondary areas of interest that can be monetized increases income, stability, and long-term resilience.

This may include pedagogy, arts administration, nonprofit leadership, marketing, fitness and wellness, or other complementary fields. Or it may be a totally distinct field that excites a student. As dance educators we can encourage integrating multiple competencies as a core professional skill rather than a fallback plan.

Departments can facilitate successful double majoring by coordinating scheduling across programs, clarifying degree sequencing early, reducing unnecessary curricular redundancy, and offering proactive, supportive advising. Many programs have started doing this very well in the last few years. 

What I see as most effective, though, is when departments don’t just “allow” double majors but they delight in them by offering flexibility in scheduling, highlighting crossover projects, and encouraging meaningful networking with alumni who have integrated multiple fields to cultivate intricate careers. 

When structured well, double majors enrich dance education and better prepare students for the field. 

Making Work-Study and Internships Career-Relevant

Work-study positions and internships are often treated as purely financial supports rather than professional development opportunities. Dance departments can intentionally guide students toward roles in technical theater, marketing and communications, office administration, data and audience management and other elements of dance production where they can develop marketable skills. 

Departments can also formalize internal internships in areas such as outreach, marketing, archiving, and community engagement, while helping students translate these experiences into resumes and job searches beyond graduation. Many of these experiences are happening already in dance departments, but when formalized, students get the opportunity to get feedback, grow, and name the experience on their resume.

Tracking Alumni: Fighting Data With Data

If earnings data will be used to judge programs, departments must invest more in tracking alumni outcomes. Maintaining strong alumni records allows departments to contextualize federal data, document portfolio careers, and facilitate mentorship and networking for current students. Sometimes departments keep track of the dance majors who go on to dance careers, but it would be best to keep track of as many dance graduates including those who go on to do something radically different (and hopefully become dance audiences and patrons!)

Many programs do this well while others leave it to general university alumni networks which are often more focused on cultivating alumni donors than tracking career trajectories. In talking with dance departments I hear a wide range of strategies but most could be more robust. Things like annual alumni surveys help departments stay connected, and these are especially useful when the responses are distributed to current faculty to facilitate connections between alumni and current students. 

Conclusion: Preparing the Dance Ecosystem

This moment presents a challenge and an opportunity. Many departments are being asked to grow in student size while reducing full time faculty. Everyone is constantly asked to do more with less. But by strengthening career readiness, financial literacy, income diversification, and cross-campus collaboration, dance departments can better prepare students for meaningful, sustainable lives while maintaining artistic rigor and this benefits the field of dance as a whole. 

If we prepare dancers well—and document their outcomes thoughtfully—we will be better positioned to advocate for the value of dance education with both passion and evidence.

Notes

U.S. Department of Education, negotiated rulemaking materials on program-level accountability and earnings thresholds, December 2025.

2025 Reconciliation Debate: Senate and House Student Loans Proposals Compared

Finding Consensus and Understanding Disagreement in Higher Education Accountability

The HEA Group. “New Earnings Test Data: Only 2% of College Degree Programs at Risk.” The HEA Group Blog, written by Michael Itzkowitz, January 5, 2026, https://www.theheagroup.com/blog/earnings-test-data

U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard and administrative earnings data methodology.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, median annual earnings by educational attainment.

National Bureau of Economic Research, studies on underreporting of self-employment income.

University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, findings on informal and freelance income reporting.