Governor Josh Shapiro has filed a lawsuit, along with 24 other states and the District of Columbia, against the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) to block a restrictive new federal regulation capping the total amount of loans a student can borrow for certain degrees, including nursing and teaching. 

The federal government’s new, narrow definition of a “professional student” will limit access to essential student loans, making education less affordable and accessible; worsening deep workforce shortages; and directly harming Pennsylvania families’ access to health care – especially those in rural and underserved areas.

The new federal rule lowers financial aid limits for students pursuing advanced degrees in critical fields such as health care and education, leaving Pennsylvania students with insufficient funding to cover the high costs of post-undergrad training.

Unnecessarily Limiting Loans for Crucial Professions

The lawsuit argues that the USDE’s decision to restrict access to loans ignores real-world educational and licensing requirements. 

By redefining vital advanced-degree paths and restricting them to lower “graduate” borrowing caps, the federal policy directly targets:

-Nurses & Advanced Practitioners: Covers certified registered nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse anesthetists, and nurse midwives. This restriction hits at a time when Pennsylvania hospitals are battling a 19% vacancy rate for nurses. It also runs counter to the Trump Administration’s own Rural Health Transformation Plan, which aims to increase health care providers in rural areas.

-Physician Assistants (PAs): Over one-third of PAs say they would have abandoned the career entirely if their loans were capped. This cap heavily compromises rural primary care access.

-Mental Health & Rehabilitation Specialists: Restricts the pipeline for clinical social workers required to address the state’s expanding mental health and substance abuse crises, as well as occupational and physical therapists essential to caring for Pennsylvania’s aging population.

-Teachers & Collegiate Instructors: The downstream impact will stunt the supply of bachelor-level licensees, who depend directly on these advanced-degree professionals to serve as faculty, educators, and clinical instructors.

Hurting Pennsylvania’s Communities and Progress

The federal government’s narrow interpretation of Congressional Republicans’ budget bill that President Trump signed into law last year violates clear congressional intent to align financial aid with labor-market demands. 

Furthermore, it threatens to undermine the actions taken by the Shapiro Administration to build Pennsylvania’s workforce, including the recent implementation of three interstate licensing compacts to cut red tape and attract more health care professionals to the Commonwealth and significant work to strengthen the pipeline of highly-qualified teachers ready to enter Pennsylvania classrooms. The lawsuit asks the court to compel the USDE to adopt a functional, commonsense definition of “professional student” that includes the high-demand advanced degrees, keeping Pennsylvania’s health care and education systems running.

Source: pa.gov