Government Unions for More Student Debt
One of the biggest achievements in the 2025 tax bill was limiting the amount of federal loans that students could borrow to a total of $100,000 ($20,500 a year) for most graduate degrees and $200,000 ($50,000 a year) for professional ones. Many master’s and doctoral programs cost north of $100,000 and some even more than $200,000.
Graduate programs have become cash cows for universities, and the caps could impel them to reduce prices and spending. Heaven forefend. The caps are forcing some universities to reduce their bloated workforces. Hence, the union lawsuit, which seeks to expand what counts as a professional degree so universities can rake in more federal student-loan dollars.
Congress codified a regulation defining a professional degree as signifying “completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession” for which a “professional licensure is also generally required.” Degrees in pharmacy, medicine, dentistry, veterinary and chiropractic medicine, law, optometry, osteopathy, podiatry and theology are expressly covered.
The AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (Afscme), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Nurses United argue that the Education Department should let more graduate degrees qualify as professional, such as social work, education, library science and public health.
