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Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Money
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Donald Trump, US News, Politics, Money
Donald Trump has sparked fury across the United States after his Department of Education 'excluded' nursing as a 'professional degree'.
The move was made in line with the president's 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act', which includes brutal cuts to student loans, and is being overseen by the right-leaning Education Secretary, Linda McMahon.
Popular Grad PLUS loans - previously used by students to pay for graduate school - have been eliminated as a result of the legislation implemented earlier this year, with a cap also being placed on the amount they're permitted to borrow.
Only students taking on 'professional degrees' will be eligible to receive a higher $200,000, as per Trump's new decree, whilst grads won't be permitted anything more than $100,000.
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As part of the ruling, the Republican, 79, made it clear that nursing would no longer fall under the former category, limiting students financially who choose this degree.
Unsurprisingly, the ruling has triggered nationwide outrage, with several nursing organisations voicing their 'deep concern' over Trump's seemingly flippant attitude to the medical qualification.
Warning that limiting access to funding for student nurses could result in the 'very foundation of patient care' being 'threatened', campaigners also emphasised that aspiring nurses will likely feel ousted by their own educational facilities as a result.
Dr Jennifer Mensik Kennedy - who serves as president of the American Nursing Association - told NewsNation of this week's move: "Nursing is the backbone of the healthcare structure in the United States."
Kennedy added: "We are short tens of thousands of nurses and advanced practice nurses already. This is going to stop nurses from going to school to be teachers for other nurses."
Calling upon the Department of Education to make a U-turn, a spokesperson also declared in a statement: "Excluding nursing from the definition of professional degree programs disregards decades of progress toward parity across the health professions and contradicts the Department’s own acknowledgment that professional programs are those leading to licensure and direct practice.
"Should this proposal be finalised, the impact on our already-challenged nursing workforce would be devastating."
In response, department officials slammed fears over the future of nursing as 'fake news', with Higher Education Press Secretary Ellen Keast telling Newsweek: "The Department has had a consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades and the consensus-based language aligns with this historical precedent.
"The committee, which included institutions of higher education, agreed on the definition that we will put forward in a proposed rule.
"We’re not surprised that some institutions are crying wolf over regulations that never existed because their unlimited tuition ride on the taxpayer dime is over."
For reference, the Bureau of Labour Statistics records nurses being paid an average of $45 per hour in the US, whilst America's top five percent have received tax cuts of over $1.5 trillion, as per Trump's new bill.