By Marley Malenfant,Austin American-StatesmanNov 20, 2025Going to nursing school can be harder for incoming students after the results of the Department of Education and President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill."The Education Department no longer considers nursing as a professional degree program, which can weaken funding for students wanting to enter the healthcare field.[...]In a statement from the American Nurses Association, Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, lamented the affect this bill will have on the healthcare institution."At a time when healthcare in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care," Kennedy said.
Why was this put in the "One Big Beautiful Bill." and hidden, could they possible be afraid of what the voters would say? Answer me this: how do you fix a nursing shortage? Apparently, by making nursing school less affordable! Many nurses go on to get advance nursing degrees to help offset the doctor's shortage in rural communities what will this do to farming towns with no doctors?
You know the Republicans have been trying to gut the student loan programs ever since it was created. They believe college should only be for the rich!
NPR News reports that,
Republicans on the House education committee publicly unveiled their plan Tuesday to remake the federal student loan system while also cutting more than $330 billion in federal spending to help offset the cost of extending President Trump's tax cuts.
Okay... stop right there! "President Trump's tax cuts" you know the ones... the ones he gave to the billionaires.
By Adam S. MinskyForbesMay 01, 2025House Republicans this week unveiled sweeping legislation to remake the federal student loan system. Nearly every element of the federal student aid system, from grants to aid disbursement to repayment plans and loan forgiveness programs, would be impacted if the plan is enacted. And buried deep in the bill is a major change that would cut off a popular federal student loan forgiveness program for medical residents and interns.[...]While not expressly called out in Walberg’s speeceh [sic], the bill explicitly cuts off medical and dental residents from key student loan forgiveness benefits, suggesting that the legislation’s authors believe these individuals don’t need the relief. The proposal is intended to become part of a massive reconciliation “mega-bill” that Republican lawmakers hope to enact this summer. The reconciliation process, which allows legislation to pass with simple, party-line majorities in Congress without crashing into a Senate filibuster, would facilitate the GOP’s expansion of expiring tax cuts and slash government spending to cover the associated costs.
Sure, maybe doctors can eventually pay off their loans — but what about nurses and dental assistants? This is what happens when you sneak provisions into bills without open discussion. You get garbage. They don’t think it through. I imagine the conversation went something like:
“Why are doctors in student loan programs? Let’s cut out medical professionals!” — without ever considering nurses, dental technicians, or other healthcare workers.
Also, consider that many medical students are not rich. They need loans just to get started. Yes, they may earn a good salary once they graduate, but they still need those loans to get through college in the first place.
Right now, I had a six month wait to see a specialist, can you imagine what will happen when the shortages hit? "We can fit you on about a year from now... is November 21st 2026 okay?"
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