Trump’s Department of Education strips “professional” status from teaching, nursing and other essential fields – World Socialist Web Site
Ann Arbor educators protest spending outside Pioneer High School in Michigan, May 20, 2024.
Trump’s Department of Education strips “professional” status from teaching, nursing and other essential fields
By Nancy Hanover, Kimie Saito, 24 November 2025
Ann Arbor educators protest spending outside Pioneer High School in Michigan, May 20, 2024.
The Trump administration’s Department of Education (ED) has effectively reclassified nursing, teaching, social work, and dozens of other essential professions as non-professional fields through changes to federal student loan regulations. This move will impose severe financial barriers on students attempting to pursue these careers.
Degrading the status of degrees in science, medicine, and education is the latest move in the Trump administration’s war on knowledge and culture, carried out by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Trump’s quack-in-chief, Education Secretary Linda McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation, and the administration as a whole. These attacks echo the Nazi Gleichschaltung, which aimed to bring culture and education into line with the demands of the fascist state.
The reclassification, finalized through the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Committee’s negotiated rulemaking sessions in early November, narrows the definition of “professional degree” programs to just eleven fields: medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology, and clinical psychology. The changes are to take effect on July 1, 2026.
Theology is included, whereas nursing at all advanced levels (Master of Science in Nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice), teaching and education degrees, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, audiology, social work, public health, architecture, and counseling are excluded—professions that educate children, care for the sick and elderly, and provide essential social services.
The ED is lowering the status of these fields—even though they require licensure, advanced education, clinical training, and direct practice—the literal definition of a professional program. The goal is to prevent hundreds of thousands of students from accessing graduate education in these specialties.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s new student loan structure, students pursuing degrees now classified as “non-professional” face significantly lower federal borrowing limits: $20,500 annually with a lifetime cap of $100,000, compared to $50,000 annually and $200,000 lifetime for the narrowly defined “professional” programs. Equally damaging, the administration has eliminated the Grad PLUS loan program, which previously allowed graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance for expenses not covered by other financial aid.
For nursing students, the impact is immediate and severe. A Master of Science in Nursing program costs an average of $15,030 to $42,880, while a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree—essential for advanced practice registered nurses who provide primary care, especially in underserved areas—averages between $21,318 and $74,752 depending on the institution and program type. Many programs, particularly those preparing nurse anesthetists, exceed $100,000 in total costs.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) also establishes an “earnings premium” that connects federal loan eligibility to graduates’ earning outcomes—a hurdle that will devastate teacher graduate programs in particular.
American teachers are now so underpaid after years of bipartisan budget cuts that teacher education programs fail the “earnings test” an astounding 60-80 percent of the time. If a program’s graduates are not, on average, earning more than the high‑school‑only comparison group, the program fails the “earnings premium” or median earnings test for that year. As of 2024, teachers earn 26.8 percent less than comparable college graduates.
The Trump administration is now using the decades of declining living standards for educators–enforced by the teacher unions–as a fatal weapon against public education’s institutional survival. If would-be teachers are not eligible for federal student loans, they will be forced to change fields or forego higher education. The clear aim is to exacerbate the already dire shortage of educators.
Existing national teacher shortages have long reached a breaking point with the Trump administration simultaneously cutting $600 million in federal teacher preparation funding. Other service-oriented fields with low starting wages–such as mental health, community health, and childhood education–will also be sharply affected.
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