Outrage over Trump's bill reclassifying nursing as not a 'professional degree' for college students | The Independent
By: Rhian Lubin (The Independent)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Nursing organizations warn limiting access to student funding 'threatens the very foundation of patient care'
Nursing organizations are "deeply concerned" after the occupation has been "excluded" by definition as a "professional degree" by the Department of Education.
The decision is part of the sweeping cuts to student loans, overseen by Education Secretary Linda McMahon, laid out in President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act."
The move has alarmed nursing organizations, which warned that limiting student nurses' access to funding "threatens the very foundation of patient care."
Trump's signature legislation, which was signed into law earlier this year, eliminates the Grad PLUS loans used by many students to pay for grad school, and puts a cap on the amount they can borrow.
Under Trump's bill, only "professional degree" students are eligible for the higher loan limit of $200,000, while graduate students are capped at $100,000. Excluding nursing by definition as a professional degree effectively prices aspiring nurses out of their studies, campaigners warned.
"Nursing is the backbone of the healthcare structure in the United States," Dr Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nursing Association, told NewsNation. "We are short tens of thousands of nurses and advanced practice nurses already. This is going to stop nurses from going to school to be teachers for other nurses."
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing is also calling on the Department of Education to reverse the decision.
"Excluding nursing from the definition of professional degree programs disregards decades of progress toward parity across the health professions and contradicts the Department's own acknowledgment that professional programs are those leading to licensure and direct practice," the organization said in a statement.
"Should this proposal be finalized, the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating," the statement added.
Mary Turner, RN, president of National Nurses United, told The Independent that the Trump administration's priorities were "at odds with the needs of nurses and patients."
"If the Trump administration truly wanted to support nurses, it would be working to improve working conditions, expanding education opportunities, and ensuring patients can get health care," Turner said. "Instead, this administration is stripping nurses of their union rights, making education harder to access, and cutting health care for those who need it most."
Nurses earn $45 per hour on average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, Trump's bill provides more than$1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the top 5 percent of Americans, the Center for American Progress found.
The Education Department brushed off concerns over the future of nursing as "fake news" and accused the nursing organizations of having had an "unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime."
"The Department has had a consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades and the consensus-based language aligns with this historical precedent," the department's press secretary for higher education Ellen Keast told Newsweek.
"The committee, which included institutions of higher education, agreed on the definition that we will put forward in a proposed rule," Keast continued. "We're not surprised that some institutions are crying wolf over regulations that never existed because their unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime is over."
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to The Independent's request for comment.
An entire four-year bachelor of science in nursing program can range from $89,560 to $211,390, including tuition, housing and other fees, according toNurseJournal.
Nursing wasn't the only casualty of Trump's spending bill. Physician assistants, physical therapists, educators, social workers, audiologists, architects and accountants were also on the list of degrees that were not classed as "professional" by the Trump administration.
Programs deemed "professional" by the department were medicine, pharmacy, law, dentistry, osteopathic medicine, optometry, podiatry, chiropractic, veterinary medicine, theology, and clinical psychology.
"Can someone explain how a theologian is considered more "professional" than a nurse practitioner?" Amy McGrath, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, asked on X.
"As part of the "Big Beautiful Bill" the Department of Education just proposed a reclassification of a "professional degree," and it means fewer students will qualify for the higher loan limits they need for grad school," she said. "Programs being excluded include many fields dominated by women like healthcare, counseling, and social work. This isn't a coincidence. This is a way to quietly push women out of professional careers."
The new measures are due to be implemented beginning July 1, 2026.
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The Trump regime's quest to destroy the American way of life is kicking into high gear. Who needs nurses anyways?
Some people pretend that voting for Trump was a vote for common sense when, in fact, a vote for Trump was a vote for absolute insanity.
Im not so surre 'common sense' is what got him so many duped, but he sure amassed many a pigeon, stooped, four feathers sometimes show true colors side, of the truth, whence one is not imbibed, for the acceptance of such a bill, a bill that will surelt kill, just to enrich the rich with another thrill, cause when youcan obtain ,any one, or any thing, society ends up like the one wev're currently within, and common sense appears not so common, in fact, iot's been running pretty thin...
What that piece of shit president you're saddled with deserves is to suffer a long painful debilitating medical condition and have absolutely no nursing care. Note that that is NOT a death wish. His suffering should be lengthy.
I need nurses. We all need nurses. I've spent quite a lot of time in the hospital. 99% of my care was provided by nurses. Professionals. Who couldn't practice if they didn't have a license
I agree. Trump is a fool that likes to touch 'everything' and people had better wake up. I mean really this. . . 'man' is telling people to beat people ferociously. And the fools that support him are okay with that because so far it is not them. But all these fools have to do is stop to see who is NOW getting death threats and losing their livelihood because of Trump's sic-ing and they would realize that the instance they get out of line. . . he is coming for their butts too!
For those that graduate, some types of nursing pays a fairly decent salary;
Top Highest-Paid Nursing Jobs in 2025
My daughter is a Neonatal Intensive Care nurse. If she's making that kind of money...she's paying for my nursing home
my cousin's wife is some kind of ultra specialized neo-natal nurse as well. she makes bank in the southwest.
she used to work for a private hospital back east, treating women that weren't supposed to get pregnant, and would commute every week. but some hospital system in AZ wanted her so bad they gave her a hiring bonus, bought her house in texas, found her a new one in AZ, paid for her move, and she now has 3 day work weeks and all the OT she wants. my cousin is an airline pilot and all their kids are grown and out of the house, so they travel a lot now.
So, nurses, physician assistants, physical therapists, and teachers aren't professionals, but preachers are?
A lack of study groups makes it really hard to be fluent in Aramaic.
Maybe not totally fluent, bit if someone is fluent in either Arabic or Hebrew they can comunicate in Aramaic fairly well (they're all the same language family "Semitic languages"),
Although both may be Semitic languages, IMO there is quite a lot of difference between Hebrew (עִבְרִי) and Arabic (ﻋَﺮَﺑِﻲّ), and the word Semitic in Hebrew is (שַׁמִּי) and in Arabic is (سامي).
That always surprised me (the difference in Hebrew & Arabic alphabets). I know a little about the two languages when spoken— of the few words I know Hebrew & Arabic sound fairly similar ( yet the alphabets are so different).
I also know a little spoken Aramaic. I learned it from a professor who taught at Brandeis.
The Kaddish, which is the prayer said at the graveside in Jewish funerals, is in Aramaic, not Hebrew, although I believe the last sentence may be Hebrew.
When I was a camper at one of the summer camps I went to as a kid one of the counselors taught Semitic languages at Brandeis and during his summer vacation was a counselor at a summer camp. It was so long ago I don’t remember which camp it was. (Probably in Vermont but maybe in New Hampshire).
Somehow we got to talking about his job and one result was him teaching us a little Aramaic! (Spoken only, nothing written).
He also taught us a few Arabic & Hebrew equivalents— most sounded somewhat similar in all 3 languages.
Thoughout my life I have learned many things— most of them totally useless!
Learning a little Aramaic never hurt anybody.
Aramaic is still spoken today in certain areas in the Middle East, mostly in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey.
Aramaic is still spoken today in certain areas in the Middle East, mostly in northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey.
I had thought it was defunct, a "dead language", no longer spoken by anyone. But I googled it and found there still a few people speaking it (in the areas you mentioned).
Mainly Assyrians. (not Syrians, they are a different group).
Apparently there were many battles back and forth between various peoples in that area. Some Assyrians who survived emigrated to various countries abroad,
Brandeis, a university named after a great Justice of the SCotUS. I wonder if the SCotUS was so politically biased back then. I'm pretty certain it would NEVER have declared a man above the law back then.
If that is so, then Aramaic is awfully similar to Hebrew.
You never know when one of those useless things might become to be important to you, or to others who may be with you.
Good advice!
Actually I am familiar with that concept.
I should've put useless in quotes-- like this: "useless".(or better yet in air quotes--but that would only be effective if we were on a Zoom call.)
Actually one of the things I often find to be rewarding is to study "useless" things and find value there (when other people don't).
Or in some cases look at something the hoi polloi at first consider to be useless and for me to discover it before they do!
This is can be productive for, uh, someone who trades the Stock market.
Heh
It is Aramaic. I just found that out fairly recently. You can look it up. They are both Semitic languages, thus the similarity. It may have originally been in Hebrew, but it was apparently translated into Aramaic since that was the language of the general Jewish population at the time.
Well that is interesting. I learned something today. They sure sound the same. I guess Arabic sounds similar as well.
You're thinking of Latin.
No I am not thinking of Latin.
I was thinking of Aramaic!
(It varies, but there are times when people they know what I thinking . . .& they are wrong. I do believe that there are cases where people do have psychic ability & can guess what others are thinking . . . that’s not true in this case!)
that sounds like some project 2025 bullshit ...
save your money for those church owned property tax sales at the county level coming up in a few years. the most valuable will be those that are on main streets and frame constructed. the burned out brick and mortar churches will cost more to demolish.
Yet again, actions by Trump that are ill-conceived and damage the USA. It is as if the prick is out to harm our nation.
And that's some bullshit
Nurses are more beneficial to the society than lawyers are.
Hey, wait a minute!!!
No, I agree. Especially with some of the lawyers I've encountered over 45 years. Terrible. My wife is a retired nurse and she saved lives.
Not surprising really.
(But OTOH there are lawyers who've also saved lives!)
Many people are not aware of it, but there are the forensic nurses . . .
A forensic nurse is a registered nurse with specialized training at the intersection of healthcare and the legal system. They provide care for victims of violence and trauma, such as sexual assault or domestic violence, and collect physical evidence like blood and tissue samples for criminal investigations.
Forensic nurses also offer emotional support, may assist medical examiners with autopsies, and can provide expert testimony in court.
Forensic nurses can provide expert testimony in court.
I have a cousin who's a nurse. IIRC she announced it when we were both in our 20s. At that time nursing was pretty much not a prestigious profession-- many people thought it was a realtively unskilled job!
She went on to become an RN, And then she got a more advanced degree.
I was out of touch with that part of the family for years. One day i received a book in the mail-- she had written it. (Not about nursing per se but rather about various aspects of medicine).
She had been teaching nursing,
In a case where a person is wrongly charged with a crime that could lead to his being executed, a good criminal lawyer could save that person's life. That's no problem in Canada where capital punishment has been abolished.
Depends upon your situation.
Generally speaking, if you're in good health but being sued...a lawyer might be more valuable to you.
But if you're not in any kind of legal trouble but in poor physical health a nurse might be more useful,
Generally, I agree with that.
Is this a good time to post a lawyer joke?
Q. What do you call 600 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
A. A good start.
Q. Why don't the sharks touch them?
A. Professional courtesy.
Its always a good time to post lawyer jokes!
I used to know tons of them
I dated a lawyer once-- brilliant woman. And she was constantly telling lawyer jokes (Putting down the profession-- then she lauged a lot!)
Okay, here's the piece de resistance one:
What's the difference between a lawyer and a prostitute?
A prostitute can't screw you when you're dead.
I agree-- definitely one of the better lawyer jokes I've heard!!!
I think it’s funny that nurses are outraged. Nothing against nurses but the story is much broader than that.
other professions not included are architects, accountants, educators, and social workers—which sector representatives pushed to be included in the list, given that they are high-demand occupations.
It has also been reported that engineering, a business master's, counseling or therapy, and speech pathology will not be considered "professional" either.
This is the height of stupidity. I guess now if you can design bridges and buildings in a video game you’re eligible for a six figure job somewhere doing it for real.
just more dumbing down attempts from an orange clown
Just goes to show the values of our current society-- people judging the comparative worths of bridges vs. the worth of video games!
Never underestimate human stupidity!
So I googled it :
The phrase "never underestimate human stupidity" is a well-known saying, notably popularized by historian Yuval Noah Harari and writer Robert A. Heinlein . It suggests that human folly, often fueled by arrogance, a lack of critical thinking, or an overestimation of one's own knowledge, can lead to surprisingly dangerous and destructive outcomes, despite our intelligence and power ( Cont'd)
So? All engineering programs have been excluded from eligibility for the higher loan limits, too. Being excluded from Federal high limit student loans does not reclassify a profession as non-professional. Obviously this is just another TEA Party attempt to drown government in Newt Gingrich's bathtub.
Could this possibly be one of those occasions where its actually a good idea to throw the baby out with the bath water? (Figuratively speaking of course-- we want to make sure that no actual babies were hurt in the making of this comment)!
Perhaps but not as you may think. It is the phony outrage that has made Democrats untrustworthy and irrelevant. The Trump administration has been shrinking government since the inauguration. That doesn't have a fucking thing to do with reclassifying professions.
Democrats in their zealous outrage have subliminally convinced the electorate that Democrats want students on the hook for as much debt as possible. The real problem is the cost of education and Democrats solution is the throw more money at the system. Pragmatically that's called doubling down on stupid.
So now voters are only left with a choice between the lesser of two evils.
I guess the Republican war on women is ongoing. A much higher percentage of nurses are women.
I wonder how many schools who profit from student enrollment are outraged.
Various professions that are no longer considered as deserving a professional degree means schools will have fewer paying customers for those classes.
Many students thinking of entering nursing as a profession will rethink this path going forward. As will many seeing the downgrade for other professions targeted in this ridiculous move.
Same with teachers, who are also no longer considered to be professionals, but are often expected to obtain master's degrees in their fields after they're hired.
From what I’ve seen of Masters degrees in education…well let’s just say I’m not too impressed.
Not a master's in education. A master's in the field in which they teach. A chemistry teacher would be strongly encouraged to get a master's in chemistry, for example. They might be hired with a bachelor's in chemistry and enough education classes to get a teaching certification, but they're expected to get a master's in chemistry after hiring.
A master’s in the field in which they teach . .
I got it so long ago that I’ve almost forgotten about it, but I actually have a master’s degree ,(in education!). It was in media. A master’s in “Media Ecology”.
Interesting stuff, but it was never a field I taught in. (My career in various aspects of “education” was long & varied, often extremely unconventional).
If schools start having “ fewer paying customers for certain classes” that might not really pose a problem. All they’d have to do is lower the admission standards for other classes!
(Some people today assume that having a college degree will automatically make them “successful” in life. Guaranteeing a “good” job and financial security. Obviously that’s not the case!)
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So now I guess some of these otherwise 'yahoos' will get it. . . we have potentially three more years plus of this weakening of the floor under this nation's success! All because some people could not be persuaded to choose 'good' over 'greed.' Now greed is about to consume the country's soul and freedoms will be lost.
Now we get to see what some people will do whom have not been 'dealt with' —so far. Yes! There is plenty of time for Donald to mess up (those) careers wholesale too!
When Trump came for ___________ there was no one left to help.
I have so much respect for nurses, especially in recent years. As they do so much on behalf of patients for doctors. And the 'incredible' attitude for service which they display to another human being is comforting and reassuring.
What I hate about this is once again, Trump is touching a(nother) 'third-rail' and pulling it out of its place-not merely for inspection but for its ruin.
This is the problem I see with having a/any individual who is not really in touch with ordinary people doing extraordinary things (for others) being put in 'total' control of a "working" government.
Apparently, this is what Trump and MAGA have been about all along. . . dumbing down society and wishing to make it dependable of itself-or fail under the weight of "making brick without straw" - a reference to biblical Egypt and the Jewish people trapped under its king's control.
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Meta cleanup on aisle 8.1.
gosh darn it, apparently I missed some nefarious flags or comments when I went for my walk ...
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should government websites be that partisan? I thought official gov't websites were to avoid any political leanings
not according to the hatch act ...
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get a fucking clue ...
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