Dive Brief:
- The House Appropriations Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would designate graduate nursing programs as professional degrees, meaning students in those programs would have higher loan limits.
- Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Education released regulations that excluded graduate nursing programs, among other programs, from its list of professional degrees. The designation allows students to take out up to $200,000 in federal student loans — double that for other graduate programs.
- Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike have argued the Education Department’s final list of professional degrees was too narrow and would worsen shortages of healthcare workers. The regulations have already spurred at least three lawsuits.
Dive Insight:
The legislative language that would classify advanced nursing programs as professional degrees was added as an amendment to the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bill for the Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments. The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the amendment.
More than two dozen states sued the Education Department in May over its decision to exclude nursing and other fields from the professional degree designation, arguing that the regulations would exacerbate workforce shortages. The states asked the judge to strike down the Education Department’s regulatory definition of professional degree.
Later that month, a coalition of nursing organizations filed a similar lawsuit seeking to have the court strike down the exclusion of nursing from the definition as unlawful. Likewise, two associations representing physician associates and programs sued over the regulations in June, asking the court to nullify the Education Department’s definition and declare that physician associate programs are professional degrees.
Trump administration officials have contended that the borrowing caps will force colleges to lower their tuition. Previously, they pointed to a handful of examples of colleges reducing their rates, including Neumann University’s decision in May to cut tuition for three graduate programs — including two in nursing — by 15% to 29%.
The amendment contained other provisions aimed at the Education Department. Another would block the agency from altering the “fundamental purpose, structure, or implementation of Federal TRIO Programs,” which it says are designed to help low-income and first-generation students attain and complete higher education.
Earlier this year, the Education Department solicited applications for two TRIO grant competitions that called for proposals that focus on alternatives to traditional higher education, such as apprenticeships. The competitions raised alarms among student advocates, who said the agency was shifting grants’ focus away from college and toward workforce development, Inside Higher Ed reported.
Overall, the appropriations bill would provide $70.7 billion in discretionary funding to the Education Department, representing a 10% reduction from the agency’s current funding.
Additionally, it would raise the maximum Pell Grant by $50 to $7,445 and provide roughly $16 billion to address a funding shortfall for the program, according to a National College Attainment Network analysis. However, it would also eliminate subsidized federal loans for undergraduate students — a proposal that has raised concerns from advocacy groups.
“We are grateful to see continued progress in keeping up with the funding needs of Pell, but you can't help students afford college by taking away the loans they need to stay enrolled,” Kim Cook, CEO of the National College Attainment Network, said in a statement earlier this month.
And it would cut funding for some other student aid programs.
The measure would reduce funding for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, an aid program for low-income students, to $546 million, a 40% drop from current levels. And it would slash funding for Federal Work-Study, which subsidizes part-time employment for students to help them pay for college, by roughly a quarter to $908 million.
