Education is no longer a ‘professional degree.’ What will the ripple effects be?

“Staffed Up is a monthly series examining school staffing best practices and solutions for teacher recruitment and retention. When Azaria Cunningham was pursuing a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at Pennsylvania State University almost two years ago, she said she had to visit food pantries even as she relied on federal student loans to attain her advanced education degree. That was before the U.S. Department of Education finalized a rule in late April defining the graduate degrees considered "professional" and therefore exempt from the new $100,000 cap on federal student loans for graduate programs. Graduate education programs were excluded from the definition, leaving K-12 advocates fearful that schools will increasingly struggle to recruit and retain administrators, teachers and counselors. The change, which takes effect July 1, allows a lifetime federal student loan limit of $200,000 for "professional degree" programs. The Education Department has previously cited federal data from over five years ago that found 90% of education graduate students borrowed below the annual loan limit of $20,500 — a notable difference from the $50,000 annual cap for students seeking graduate degrees now defined as "professional." Even so, it’s likely that a larger share of graduate students will need more than the annual cap allows as the cost of living keeps increasing, said Cunningham, a postdoctoral scholar at Boston University who formerly taught middle school science in New Jersey. If the Education Department’s loan cap rule had gone into effect during her time pursuing advanced degrees, Cunningham said, she “would have left” her program because she wouldn't have been able to help support her family. “I can’t imagine the stress that students are feeling,” Cunningham said. Once “there’s a cap on loans, how can people eat?” In its reasoning for omitting graduate education programs from the definition of a professional degree , the Education Department said advanced education degrees aren’t required to enter a specific profession or obtain licensure, and therefore they don’t meet the test to be considered professional degrees. The agency acknowledged the concerns over excluded fields but said it was bound by a reference in last year’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” to an existing regulatory definition of professional programs. That referenced regulation requires that professional degrees need a “completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree” and also typically require licensure. A legal challenge begins The department’s professional degree definition is now being challenged in court as 21 states and the District of Columbia sued the Education Department on May 19 for excluding graduate nursing and other major fields. The coalition, led by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, said in a May 19 statement that the rule “unlawfully excludes many degree programs that qualify under the standards established by federal law, potentially reducing access to financial aid for students pursuing advanced education.” The coalition’s lawsuit also alleges that the Education Department illegally changed an existing federal definition of “professional degree” that Congress incorporated into law. Those alterations included adding new requirements and narrowing the eligibility in a manner that Congress never authorized. Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in a May 20 statement that the loan caps were pushing colleges to lower tuition. “Clearly, these Democratic governors and attorneys general are more concerned about institutions’ bottom-line rather than American students and families’ ability to access affordable postsecondary education,” Kent said. Cunningham said she hopes the lawsuit’s outcome will be to broaden the Education Department's definition of a professional degree. She’s also hopeful that everyone — not just policymakers — will see the value of the education profession. Who will be most impacted in education? School-based counselors, psychologists and social workers will especially face more hurdles from the new definition since those positions require a master’s degree, said Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. That’s concerning, she said, especially as schools are facing increased student mental health issues. In addition, school districts often tie pay increases to earning a graduate degree. The federal student loan cap, however, will hurt those efforts, said Valerie Truesdale, senior vice president of the Leadership Network at AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Truesdale also expressed concern about rural educators’ ability to earn advanced education degrees — when they already can earn less than their peers in suburban and urban districts. The school leadership pipeline is already challenging enough, she said. And the loan cap could exacerbate the situation by “very easily” limiting the number of people who can afford to obtain an advanced degree on a teacher’s salary. Excluding education from the professional degree definition “further demoralizes teachers and educators,” said Holcomb-McCoy. “Teaching education is a profession, and it is based on evidence and science,” Holcomb-McCoy said. “We know that teachers need the best training so that they can do the best jobs for children.” More broadly, those who will likely be most impacted by the education loan caps are women, students of color, students from tribal populations, and first-generation college students, Holcomb-McCoy said. TThose from historically disenfranchised backgrounds have typically needed additional support to complete higher education programs, she added. “This is another option that’s off the table,” Holcomb-McCoy said. The loans “will hit those who are most vulnerable, who are really aspiring to do jobs that don't get paid loads and loads of money. Maybe it's not law or business or medicine, but these are foundational jobs to everything else we need in our communities.”

Summary generated from the RSS feed of K-12 Dive Leadership. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on www.k12dive.com.