Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / New student loan rules could limit funding for some graduate programs

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New student loan rules could limit funding for some graduate programs · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: More changes are underway for federal student loans, with major
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  Speaker 1: implications for current and future graduate students. A federal judge
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  Speaker 1: has temporarily blocked parts of the Education Department's new loan limits,
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  Speaker 1: including restrictions affecting some professional degree programs. William Brigham has
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  Speaker 1: more Jeff.
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  Speaker 2: The Education Department, prompted by a successful lawsuit, has now
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  Speaker 2: put out its revised list of the graduate programs that
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  Speaker 2: are eligible for higher student loans. Previously, the Department had
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  Speaker 2: limited the amount a student could borrow for graduate programs
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  Speaker 2: that train nurses, physician assistants, and certain other roles. But
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  Speaker 2: there are other changes underway. A new provision championed by
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  Speaker 2: Republicans just took effect, which could limit the money available
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  Speaker 2: for certain colleges and certain professions. It requires these programs
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  Speaker 2: prove that graduates, on average earn more than high school graduates.
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  Speaker 2: If not, they could lose access to federal student loans.
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  Speaker 2: So to help navigate these changes and who may be
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  Speaker 2: most affected by them, we are joined again by Danielle
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  Speaker 2: Douglas Gabriel. She's the national higher education reporter for The
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  Speaker 2: Washington Post. Danielle, thank you so much for being here again.
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  Speaker 2: So as We've been trying to look at all the
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  Speaker 2: different twists and turns with regards to federal law about
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  Speaker 2: student loans. There's this new wrinkle now. The Department of Education,
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  Speaker 2: because of this lawsuit, has put out this new list
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  Speaker 2: of programs that are eligible for higher student loan limits,
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  Speaker 2: including programs that covered nurse training and physician assistant training.
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  Speaker 2: Can you help us understand why the department wanted to
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  Speaker 2: limit some of those?
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  Speaker 3: Well, first, thanks for having me. I think the objective
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  Speaker 3: from the department was to really try to curb graduate borrowing.
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  Speaker 3: As you remember, the Republican Tax and Spending Bill from
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  Speaker 3: last year really instituted a bunch of changes to the
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  Speaker 3: federal student loan system, one of them being instituting caps
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  Speaker 3: where none had it existed when it came to graduate borrowing,
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  Speaker 3: as well as parent borrowing for undergrads in the graduate space,
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  Speaker 3: the law listed about eleven examples of what they would
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  Speaker 3: consider professional degree programs programs that would require more borrowing
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  Speaker 3: up to fifty thousand dollars a year or a lifetime
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  Speaker 3: of two hundred thousand, like law or medicine. In doing so,
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  Speaker 3: there was a lot of ignoring of a lot of
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  Speaker 3: professions and feels that normally would have qualified for higher
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  Speaker 3: loan limits under kind of Congress's definition of what a
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  Speaker 3: professional degree would be. But the Department of writing out
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  Speaker 3: the rules for this particular cap headed all these additional
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  Speaker 3: criteria to this professional designation, which really limited how many
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  Speaker 3: fields could qualify. In doing so, they left out nursing
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  Speaker 3: physician assistance, and that led these organizations that support such
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  Speaker 3: groups to file a lawsuit. Now keep in mind, this
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  Speaker 3: is a temporary order. The judge said that they will
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  Speaker 3: block this particular definition while this litigation is ongoing, and
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  Speaker 3: in response, the department expanded its list. This is not final,
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  Speaker 3: especially since the Department of Education has vowed to fight
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  Speaker 3: and it could potentially be successful in doing so. But
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  Speaker 3: for the time being, there is a list that went
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  Speaker 3: from eleven into about twenty nine different professional degrees that
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  Speaker 3: now qualify for the higher loan limits.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so now let's pivot to this do no harm
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  Speaker 2: accountability test. It sounds like the Department is saying that
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  Speaker 2: if you graduate programs do not churn out graduates that
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  Speaker 2: earn more than a high school graduate, maybe you should
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  Speaker 2: not be receiving the benefit of federal student loans. Is
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  Speaker 2: that the argument that they are.
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  Speaker 3: Making, that's the crux of it. I mean for undergraduate
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  Speaker 3: programs because this applies to all schools in all degree programs,
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  Speaker 3: which is different from some of the accountability rules we've
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  Speaker 3: had previously, such as gainful employment, which really focus on
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  Speaker 3: career and vocational training. This is for everybody. If you're
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  Speaker 3: in an undergraduate program and your graduates do not make
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  Speaker 3: as much as the median high school graduate, then that's
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  Speaker 3: when you have to start worrying about your eligibility. If
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  Speaker 3: you're in a graduate program, you start worrying about your
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  Speaker 3: eligibility if your graduates don't make as much as a
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  Speaker 3: bachelor's degree graduate. Now, to be clear, in the first
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  Speaker 3: year you get a warning that students who are applying
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  Speaker 3: to your programs will receive and say that, hey, the
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  Speaker 3: outcomes for this program isn't so great. Now, if you
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  Speaker 3: failed this test in two consecutive years, this is when
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  Speaker 3: the stakes get really high, where you could potentially lose
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  Speaker 3: access to federal student loans, and if the outcomes are
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  Speaker 3: especially bad, you could also lose lose access to pelgrams.
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  Speaker 3: These rules probably wouldn't be fully realized and felt by
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  Speaker 3: schools till twenty twenty eight, so there is some time,
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  Speaker 3: and what I expected we're going to see, and what
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  Speaker 3: I've heard my sources is that schools are already judging
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  Speaker 3: and looking at all of their programs to see which
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  Speaker 3: ones would fail, which ones would pass. So they're starting
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  Speaker 3: to do the legwork to try to avoid the worst
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  Speaker 3: of the consequences.
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  Speaker 2: And how are schools reacting to this new measure. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I understand this will really impact some for profit schools,
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  Speaker 2: but also schools that teach arts and social sciences that
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  Speaker 2: might argue that how much you make is not necessarily
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  Speaker 2: the best way to measure whether you are to get
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  Speaker 2: an education in that program.
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  Speaker 3: There's a lot of consternation among a lot of different programs,
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  Speaker 3: definitely cosmetology schools in the vocational training space, certainly religious studies,
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  Speaker 3: schools where their graduates don't make a whole lot of money.
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  Speaker 3: I think another argument we're seeing is that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: this period of time may not be the best time
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  Speaker 3: to capture the value of the degree. Many people don't
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  Speaker 3: start to really earn more until they're later into their career,
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  Speaker 3: so it seems a little unfair to judge them at
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  Speaker 3: that particular point. But you know, the overall argument is
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  Speaker 3: we want to hold institutions accountable for making sure that
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  Speaker 3: students are not left worse off than when they started
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  Speaker 3: these programs. So we'll have to really see how it's
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  Speaker 3: going to play out over the next few years.
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  Speaker 2: So many complex changes. Danielle Douglas Gabriel of The Washington Post,
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  Speaker 2: thank you so much for being here.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you.
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