Tell the DOE: Halt professional degree reclassification!

 

The petition to the Secretary of Education ​​Linda McMahon and the entire Department of Education leadership reads:

Immediately halt any efforts to reclassify advanced degrees. Removing degrees in nursing, physician assistantship, physical therapy, audiology, architecture, accounting, education, public health, and social work from the professional classification is an insult to the majority-women workforces who occupy these roles and provide essential services.

The DOE is considering reclassifying degrees for nursing, counseling, accounting, and social work as "graduate" degrees, instead of "professional" degrees. This change in status would cut in HALF the amount of loans students can take out for these degrees, and it would delegitimize these women-dominated fields.

The new system, called the Repayment Action Plan (RAP), will cap annual loans at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students. Previously, borrowers could borrow up to the cost of attendance. 

Now, instead of graduate students in professions like nursing, teaching, public health, and social work being able to get low-interest loans from the federal government, they will be forced to take out private loans, which are more likely to have higher interest rates and less flexible repayment options.

In addition to being insulting and financially disruptive, this proposed reclassification could also negatively impact client care, lower the quality of American public education, and worsen staffing shortages for nurses, teachers, and social workers. Please sign now to defend our teachers, nurses, social workers, accountants, and others!