Degree Cuts: The Department of Education’s reclassification of certain degrees isn’t worth the risk of losing workers in those fields

“Let’s pick a different job that has more loan opportunities.” 

“Sorry, we just can’t afford for you to go into nursing.”

These are phrases no student wants to hear about the field they're passionate about. But now, because of the U.S. Department of Education’s reclassification of degrees and professions, SM East students are facing problems with affording their schooling more than ever before.

Due to these new classifications, careers such as nursing, accounting, social work and education aren’t classified as “professional" — instead, they’re just classified as graduates, according to a regulation of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill carried out by the U.S. Department of Education. Students pursuing these degrees and entering these fields have a cap on federal student loan grants, depending on field and circumstance, starting next July.

Even though the long-term effects are currently unknown, this could make education for these careers less accessible, deterring students from pursuing vital professions.

It’s also no secret that people who can afford these degrees, even after this bill, come from families of higher income. If these higher-income families are the only people who can afford to go into these fields after the reclassification, then it could have the effect of broadening the wealth gap in the United States. 

To clarify, this bill doesn’t mean that Trump thinks these degrees are unprofessional in the traditional sense of them not being worthwhile jobs. Rather, the Trump Administration uses the terms “professional” and “non-professional” to refer to the different programs that “qualify for higher loan limits,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Even though this bill, which stated the new non-professional degrees, wasn’t passed with malicious intent, it will still have negative effects, such as worker shortages, according to the Society for Human Resource Management.

Reclassifying these degrees as non-professional isn’t an effective way to decrease the cost of graduate programs. Neither is it a productive method to reduce the debt students are put in after postsecondary education, which was supposed to be the goal of the regulation. The side effects of this reclassification heavily outweigh the real purpose, to the point where it isn’t even worth it to reclassify these degrees.

Along with classifying these degrees, the U.S. Department of Education also stated how much financial support students entering these fields can receive after this bill regulation is put into effect for their studies. Trump cut the Grad PLUS program simultaneously with the degree reclassification. The program provided loans to graduate students to cover expenses for school and related costs, which is vital. This decision was a huge oversight by the Trump Administration.

The termination of this Grad PLUS program leaves lower-income students without an option to receive financial assistance for educational costs that these federal loans no longer cover, according to the American College of Education.

The Parent PLUS loans have also been terminated, which in the past had helped parents cover their children’s schooling expenses with federal loans, according to Federal Student Aid.

SM East students currently training to become Certified Nursing Assistants at the Center for Academic Achievement are frustrated about this decision to lower the loan amounts possible to receive, according to these students. Also, careers like the nursing field already have a shortage of employees, according to Spring Arbor University, and the effect of this reclassification could very well cause a bigger shortage.

For occupations like teaching, it’s widely known that educators already don’t earn adequate salaries, so lowering the amount they’re able to get loans for isn’t practical. It could then discourage more students from going into an already severely understaffed role that literally shaped their education.

Another notable point is that the majority of these are woman-dominated fields, such as healthcare and education, according to Statista. By classifying these degrees as “non-professional,” it comes off as degrading women in the professional or corporate world. 

Many women, such as accountants, would probably be incredibly disappointed to enter a corporate world where they’re already undervalued, according to Equal Rights Advocates, only to hear that the degree they spent four or more years studying for is no longer considered “professional” by people who don’t actually know what the term means in the context of the bill regulation.

Even if this reclassification reduces any student debt, naming degrees as professional and non-professional has a much larger effect for graduate students, and the government should find other solutions to the significant debt issue that don't prevent students from trying to pursue a career.