Federal regulations are about to wreck the industry that gave me everything

In 1980, I was a Navy veteran sleeping in a 20-year-old car, scraping together $700 to start a hair care company with a stylist named Paul Mitchell. We believed the American Dream was still open for business. Forty-six years later, that same dream is what a federal rule is about to close down for the next generation.

The Department of Education has proposed an earnings premium metric under the gainful employment rule that will judge career programs by one rigid number: whether vocational graduates...