Courtney, Marx and nurses decry Trump administrations cutbacks to federal student loans

The Day – Monday, May 18, 2026
By Daniel Drainville

State and federal officials, along with nursing and union leaders, visited CT State Community College Three Rivers Monday to decry recent changes by the Trump administration that will cap the amount nursing students can receive through federal student loans at 60% of the current level.

The changes — wildly unpopular among those in the field of nursing — come through the federal Department of Education, led by Secretary Linda McMahon.

Effective July 1, advanced practice nursing students — which include those seeking to become advanced practice registered nurses, certified registered nurse anesthesiologists, midwives and students of other health care degree programs, will see their degrees of choice excluded from the federal Department of Education’s definition of “professional” degrees, thus capping the amount of federal student loans they can receive at $20,500.

This is half of what they would be eligible for under the current loan program. The loan overhaul also affects a number of other graduate-level programs.

During a comment period on the new rule, more than 245,000 nurses signed a petition organized by the American Nurses Association in opposition to the change.

At a hearing last week, McMahon was pressed about the change by U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, and other members of the House Education and Workforce Committee.

Courtney said Monday that McMahon had “stonewalled” them.

“Myself and others, including Republicans, were actually grilling her on the fact that nurses, after the completion of the rule-making process, continue to be defined as nonprofessionals, and basically allotted, or condemned, to this lower category of loan eligibility,” Courtney said. “Which, at the end of the day — as I pointed out to the secretary — means that people are going to get pushed out of federal loan programs that have been in existence since the 1960s, into the private market, where interest rates are higher, and loan underwriting is part of the process.”

“Which is going to make some people, particularly from low-income, first-in-family in terms of going into higher education, ineligible for loan assistance,” he added.

According to reporting by the CT Mirror on the hearing, McMahon had emphasized that her department was “not making any kind of a judgment relative to professional degrees” and instead is trying to “bring down the cost” of tuition, while pointed to “exorbitant” college costs, noting that “students are burdened with debt.”

“She was making the case that this rule is going to reduce tuitions,” Courtney said.

As officials at the Monday news conference pointed out, the new rule comes amid a state and nationwide shortage of advanced nurses and poses an additional barrier to those looking to enter the field.

Victoria Vaughan Dickson, the dean of the Elizabeth DeLuca School of Nursing at the University of Connecticut, said out of the 5,900 advance practice registered nurses (APRNs) in the state, it is estimated that about 18% plan to retire within the next five years.

Vaughan Dickson said the nursing school currently has more than 300 nursing students in graduate programs. The majority, she said, are in the Master of Science program, and include those seeking to become advanced practice nurses in areas of family medicine, nurse practitioners, gerontology or acute care specialists and neonatal nurse practitioners. Dozens more students are enrolled in graduate midwife (GMP), and doctorate of philosophy (PhD) in nursing science programs.

“Capping those loans at $20,500 per year for graduate students means that many will have no choice but to seek private loans, or, more likely, walk away from their education entirely,” she said. “Connecticut cannot afford to lose these future nurses. The nursing workforce is aging, and the nursing faculty shortage that is expected to grow will significantly impact our ability to continue to educate nurses at all levels.”

Vaughan Dickson said the overhaul affects not only the aging nursing workforce who are in hospitals, clinics, and at patients’ bedsides, but also the number of nursing educators, researchers and innovators.

Kimberly Sandor, executive director of the CT Nurses Association, referred to nurses as the backbone of the healthcare system. But they cannot be developed, she said, without rigorous education.

“Under these recent federal rule student loan changes, graduate nursing education is somehow being treated as though it’s somehow less important,” she said. “We know that’s not true.”

“We’re in the midst of a great nursing shortage, and it is a crisis,” Sandor added. “This policy, as my colleagues said, it just creates barriers to the very education and healthcare system that we all depend on. And it’s happening at a really bad time.”

State Sen. Martha Marx, D-20th District, a graduate of University of Connecticut’s nursing program who has been a nurse for about four decades, disagreed with the administration’s determination that nursing is not a profession.

“I am one of those older nurses that hopefully some day will retire,” she said. “When we all heard what the Trump administration did — (It was) bad enough calling, stating that we’re not a profession. We’ve worked so hard to make sure that we are seen as a profession, we’re accepted as a profession. The fact that more male nurses are coming in unfortunately I think kind of proves that we are a profession.”

Courtney argued that if the country is actually serious about addressing a current shortage in qualified nurses, particularly those with advanced degrees, those in charge of federal policy should be knocking down barriers, instead of creating new ones.

He said people cannot walk into a doctor’s office or large healthcare institution today where advanced nurses have not been integrated into the delivery of care.

“And yet, this rule, which came out of the Department of Education, is basically going to push these students into a category where, again, it’s going to cost more, and be harder for them to get the financial resources to pursue their own goals in terms of being part of the caring profession, but also to help our nation address a critical healthcare issue,” he said.

In response to the cutbacks, the state legislature has committed to provide supplemental loan assistance to nursing students through the state’s Higher Education Supplemental Loan Authority.

“Right now, we’re putting away $10 million to help those that can’t get their education fully funded, to go through the state to be able to help them,” Marx said. “We’re always fighting back, aren’t we? That’s the story of our lives right now.”

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