One of the most ominous sentences in the United States begins, “In a little-known provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R.1) passed in July….”
Those 870 pages were peppered with some ugly mines. Doctors, nurses, other health workers, and colleges and universities will have to cope with the direct damage that begins next year. The rest of us will face harm inflicted for years.
The legislation puts caps on amount of federal student loans students seeking post-graduate health care degrees. The changes are especially hard on nurses. The legislation adopted a Department of Education regulation that excludes nurses from the definition of professionals, further restricting financing options for graduate school nursing students.
Beginning in July, medical school students will not be able to borrow more than $50,000 a year from federal education loan programs. That’s $200,000 over four years, far less than what many medical schools cost, according to a Tuesday National Public Radio report. The impact of that new policy will add to the advantage upper-middle class students already enjoy in getting a medical school education.
President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Education to root out “overt and hidden racial proxies” in higher education. The Republican told what’s left of the education agency to rid “society of shameful, dangerous racial hierarchies,” NPR reported without noting Trump presides over a cabinet that it 83% white, which looks like a racial hierarchy.
The loan limit will fall hardest on students who are the first generation of their families to earn undergraduate degrees and are qualified to advance to medical school. For students from wealthy families, the new rules clear their path to medical school because brighter students from poor families will be locked out by their finances. No one in the Trump administration seems too troubled by the racial hierarchy this new policy enlarges.
For students considering a career in nursing, dismay and confusion abound. The bill lowers the limits on graduate nursing programs, especially part-time ones. Nurses typically advance within their profession through hands-on work experience while enrolling in part-time graduate programs. The loans they need may pay the cost of their graduate classes and cover some of the loss of income from reducing their work hours to continue their education.
Defenders of this callous assault on learning and achievement claim its impact will be minimal and may even drive down the cost of education. They are wrong, but certain in their error. Life has become harder for Americans striving to make their and others’ lives more satisfying and productive.
You do not need to consume much news to repeatedly see stories about the shortage of nurses tormenting patients, doctors, and hospitals. There is also, Jennifer Mensik Kennedy of the American Nurses Association told The Washington Post, a shortage of “over 2,000 faculty nurses.”
This is not a distant problem for others to grapple with. It’s here in Connecticut. A significant federal graduate loan program, GradPLUS, will be eliminated for new borrowers beginning in July 2026. It will wind down for students currently using it. Students in Connecticut graduate schools have been borrowing $90 million a year through GradPLUS. Our highly educated workforce learns from faculties at colleges and universities that are the envy of much of the world.
The changes in federal student loan programs will affect working Connecticut State Colleges and Universities students who borrow $17 million a year, according to Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges. Goodwin University, which educates many of the state’s nurses in programs tailored to working adults trying to climb the ladder of career advancement, will also need to look elsewhere to finance their educations.
The alternatives can be expensive or beyond the reach of graduate program students. They may not have a sufficient credit history to qualify for private lending that they can afford to fill gaps in the money they piece together to pay for their education.
The restoration of Connecticut’s state government finances since 2017 could make this moment less dire than it might otherwise be. The Connecticut Higher Education Supplemental Loan Authority, or CHESLA, may be able to use its bonding authority to help students caught in this big, ugly crunch.
Help for nurses may be easier to offer than students in other professions. Banks know that nurses have low, low, low default rates on student loans, so are a good risk. Some of the state’s banks may step into the breach.
The stark change in graduate student loan programs is a reminder of the Trump administration’s broad hostility to higher education. It requires a serious, sustained response. The CSCU Board of Regents raised doubts as to its ability to meet this moment.
On Monday, the Regents held a special meeting that it posted a notice for on the previous Friday, which is hardly any notice at all. A BOR special meeting provides no opportunity for public comment. The Regents began their meeting by moving into closed session. An hour and 15 minute later, they returned remotely and, with no discussion, waved through a resolution that extended the tenure of Interim Chancellor O. John Maduko by another year, after only five months in the job.
The Regents also voted to begin a search for a permanent chancellor next year, long after it should have begun with the June resignation of Terrence Cheng. He resigned after it became clear he had disregarded clear rules of spending public funds on meals, transportation, and housing. The Regents rewarded Cheng with a $442,000 one-year deal as an advisor with undefined obligations.
CSCU’s informal motto remains “Shhhhh” at a time when this moment requires nimble, confident leadership that showcases defiant transparency for the benefit of the 85,000 students it serves.
Kevin F. Rennie can be reached at [email protected]