For years, Republicans have been calling for the termination of the Education Department.
I wouldn’t go that far, but a recent decision of the current Education Secretary shows the need for new leadership in this department. It’s going to drastically increase medical bills, by exacerbating a problem hurting our medical system: an acute shortage of nurses and the professors that prepare them, by refusing to classify their degrees as “professional.”
This whole mess began when the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed on the 4th of July — rushed to reach a deadline, and treated as another partisan battle. But its effects will hurt everyone, no matter which party you register for, or even if you don’t.
When the Education Department stripped nurses of their “professional” degree status, it limited how much people could borrow to earn their degree. According to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) “Under the U.S. Department of Education’s new definition of professional programs, nursing, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, physical therapy and audiology programs are now excluded and must follow new borrowing limits.”
If you think that’s bad, you should read who does get to borrow more under this deal as well.
In case you haven’t heard, we face a terrible nursing shortage nationwide already, even before these crippling caps on borrowing take effect. Hounded into retirement, bullied and burned out with the COVID-19 pandemic and the attacks on the health care profession by conspiracy theorists have taken their toll. Having an aging population and budget cuts are only exacerbating the crisis. We’re short a million nurses according to a publication by the National Institute of Health three years ago, and throwing roadblocks at their profession isn’t helping.
I know what some of you are thinking, because I know my audience. Some of you are concerned, while others are concluding that no one wants to be a nurse from the younger generation because it’s hard work, and they’re lazy. You’d be wrong if you concluded the latter was true, according to the New York Academy of Medicine.
Good and willing nursing candidates are being turned away because we don’t have the nursing professors and resources to teach them.
“The nursing shortage remains especially acute: tens of thousands of positions nationwide remain vacant, and workforce projections indicate persistent shortages for years to come. Meanwhile, data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing show that more than 80,000 qualified applicants were turned away from U.S. nursing schools in 2022 due to limited faculty and resources, which indicates a pressing shortage of advanced practice nurses and nursing faculty (without whom workforce expansion is impossible).”
But this new Education Department decision only gets worse. From NYAM, “Under this new definition, students in programs no longer deemed ‘professional; would be ineligible for the Graduate PLUS Loan program, a funding source essential for many seeking advanced degrees in health science professions.”
The Education Department disputes those charges, claiming that most students wouldn’t be affected by these changes.
But that misses the point. Any reduction in nurses and nursing professors would affect the health care system. We need a massive expansion of nurses; claiming that the reductions wouldn’t be as bad does not recognize the realities of the shortage, and future demand for additional nurses and educators.
Please contact Congress here to bring pressure on this terribly misguided Education Department classification scheme.
John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu or on “X” at @johntures2. His first book “Branded” has been published by the Huntsville Independent Press (https://www.huntsvilleindependent.com/product-page/branded).