President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will make it harder for nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, physical therapists and audiology students to borrow money for their education, Wisconsin Public Radio reports.
Students in “professional” programs, like doctors and lawyers, can borrow up to $50,000 a year or a total of $200,000 under the new U.S. Department of Education guidelines.
All other graduate students can borrow up to $20,500 a year or a total of $100,000.
Wisconsin is already in a nursing shortage, and this could add to it, according to sources cited in the report. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development predicts the state will be short between 12,000 and 19,000 nurses by 2040.
The state Legislature began adding $5 million to the biennial budget in 2022 for the Higher Educational Aids Board for a nurse educator program.
In the program, students who earn a master’s or doctorate in nursing from a Wisconsin university are eligible for loan forgiveness if they teach nursing for three years.
Sources cited in the article said that program alone will not be enough to stem the effects of this decision.
