Student‑loan rules as quality gate

Federal rules that condition loan eligibility on simple graduate outcomes (e.g., earning above a non‑degree benchmark) act as a cheap, blunt quality control that disproportionately shuts off financing for low‑end certificate and for‑profit programs rather than elite liberal‑arts majors. The policy is politically easy to sensationalize by saying it 'bans degrees,' but in practice it sets a low, labor‑market linked threshold and mostly targets programs with predatory business models. — This reframes the student‑debt fight from an access vs. austerity tug‑of‑war to a debate about whether federal credit should be an instrument to discipline low‑quality higher‑education providers and how to set fair, targeted standards.