Trump’s plan to limit student loans for nurses in his repayment overhaul is facing bipartisan backlash

***From Business Insider’s Ayelet Sheffey:***

Opposition toward new student-loan limits in President Donald Trump’s repayment overhaul is mounting.

On Friday, a bipartisan group of over 140 lawmakers sent a letter to Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent urging him to revise the Department of Education’s proposal to place new student-loan limits on professional degree programs.

The department recently concluded its negotiations on the student-loan payment changes that Trump signed into law in his “big beautiful” spending legislation. The changes included borrowing caps for graduate and professional students: a $100,000 lifetime limit for graduate students, and a $200,000 lifetime limit for professional students.

The crux of the debate centered on which programs qualify as “professional,” and the department identified 10 programs, including medicine, dentistry, and law, that would meet its new definition. Post-graduate nursing programs are not included within the professional definition, and the lawmakers wrote that the omission could exacerbate the ongoing nursing shortage.

“Classifying these programs as graduate programs would result in these students having to take out additional student loans to cover the remainder of their tuition, which will limit the ability for students to complete their advanced degree,” the letter said.

The lawmakers used the example of the Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist program, which can cost over $200,000. They said that the proposed $100,000 cap is “restricting the pipeline of CRNAs and further limiting an anesthesia workforce that is suffering from shortages across all provider types.”

[Read more about how lawmakers are pushing back against Trump’s student loan changes here.](https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-student-loan-debt-limits-nurses-bipartisan-backlash-repayment-overhaul-2025-12?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=insider-politics-sub-comment)

As a nurse I can’t even tell you how incredibly stupid what he’s trying to do is. I retired in 2018 and we were already in a serious shortage then. It has quadrupled since I left due to covid and multiple other issues. Who do they think are going to take care of people in their for-profit hospitals if there’s no nurses? The Healthcare world is already in a world of hurt because of the lack of Nursing care. This will just seal the fact that we’ll kill that many more people

This is going to crush our college town. The university is the largest employer in town, and nursing students make up a third of the town’s residents. Faculty will be fired, and local businesses will close.

If the goal was to limit the cost of a nursing degree by limiting the amount you could borrow, it is not bad a bad idea to limit cost, but doing it this way is ham fisted at best, it may or may not reach the desired goal, but it going to take a long time to get there, and in the process it going to make issues like nursing shortages a lot worse.

IMHO this is typical republican bullshit of trying to use market forces to correct problems. Often market forces move slowly, but the negative effects move much quicker.

There’s always plenty of bucks for the politicians, and the oligarchs. The rest of us pay.

His nurses must be giving him bad news about his dementia

It’s a plan to prevent graduate degrees in general by limiting the amount of student loans. Graduate nursing degrees are part of those that are affected. Many other types of degrees are also subject to the new limits. So, for example, Physician Assistants, Physical Therapists, Nurse Anesthetists, and many others.

Not that it’s any better, but I think most of you in the comments are missing what’s actually happen. This does nothing to those pursuing a BSN, this is solely for graduate level degrees, CRNAs, NPs, etc.

There has always been a cap on undergraduate student loans. This limits the ability of RNs to pursue advanced degrees. The biggest issue with the nursing shortage is actually the availability of spots in Nursing programs. When I was in undergrad, we had 400 students fighting for 200 spots in the program.

Can’t wait until the natural birth people start wanting natural surgeries…like the old days.

It is really unfathomable. What are they thinking?

I knew a lot of nurses before 2024 election. They were also against vaccines. I don’t know them anymore. 

Does literally anybody think we need less nurses? WTF

Yeah, we fucking need nurses. Not everyone can pay put of pocket for school. Nurses run hospitals.

I regret voting for him!!! I’m 52 divorced getting out this car

Entry level Physical Therapist education in California costs between 200-250k at private school. PT was also deleted from professional list.
Typical medical school is more than 200k. Most anti science, anti healthcare administration imaginable.

At least they increased borrowing for Theology school. /s.

What possible reason could there be to go after nurses? There is a shortage right now? WHAT?

Yep, that sure will help with healthcare costs!

This dude truly does not get how we, the real people, are struggling.