News about cuts in what constitutes a “professional degree” has spread like wildfire in the affected industries.
“The concern is there’s been a teacher shortage for a long time here in California,” said James Messina, Grossmont Education Association president. “I don’t know how to fill those vacancies I currently have in my district right now, let alone four or five, six years in the future when all these students evaporate and they’re no longer moving into the profession.”
People like Messina, with degrees in education, said the move by the White House is going to expand what are already very severe employment gaps in their respective fields.
The Department of Education will cap loans for graduate degrees like education at $100,000 total for all years. Professionally recognized degrees will be capped at $200,000 total.
The Education Department is defining the following fields as professional programs: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry and theology.
Left out are nursing, physical therapy, dental hygiene, occupational therapy, physician assistant, physical therapist, audiologist, and social work as well as fields outside of health care such as architecture, education, and accounting.
While the plan is still being finalized, the new student loan caps would take effect next July.
Ellen Keast, the department’s press secretary for higher education, said graduate students used to be able to borrow as much as they needed to attend school, which led to schools raising tuition. She said this change aims to get schools to bring their graduate degree costs down.
Messina doesn’t see that working. Rather, he said, the students who decide to see it through and get a now non-professional degree will have to turn to private loans.
“You see a dismantling of public ed and moving it to the private world for the almighty dollar,” Messina said. “So whatever changes they’re making, since they’re unknown, sound like they’re going to be a big problem for everybody.”
Other degrees in the same boat are advanced nursing degrees. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing contends that capping federal student loans will make the ongoing nursing shortage even worse, force students to seek more expensive private loans and threaten patient care.
In a statement, the University of San Diego supported the students, writing:
“We are actively monitoring the Department of Education’s proposed student loan rules, which use an outdated definition of ‘professional degree’ that may exclude advanced nursing programs.
USD proudly supports our nursing students and faculty, and recognizes them as the professionals they are. Given the current national nursing shortage, it’s more important than ever that we create a pipeline of advanced practice nurses. Graduate nursing programs are essential professional programs, and this proposed exclusion could significantly lower federal loan caps for our students.
“We will closely follow the situation to understand any potential regulatory changes and their impact on our graduate students’ education and financing.”
To define what counts as a professional program, the Education Department is turning to a 1965 law governing student financial aid. The law includes several examples of professional degrees but says it isn’t an exhaustive list. The Trump administration’s proposal, by contrast, says only the degrees spelled out in the new regulation can count as professional programs.
One in 6 of the nation’s registered nurses held a master’s degree as of 2022, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
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