02/19/2026
Submit your comment today: www.ncnurses.org/loancaps
We appreciate NCNA President Bonnie Meadows' perspective on this topic. Here's how she recently framed it:
"Go grab one of your old nursing textbooks. I'll wait.
Now flip to the contributors page. See all those names—the authors, editors, researchers who gave you the foundation you needed to pass your boards and start your career?
Every single one has a graduate degree.
Here's the problem: The Department of Education is using a 1960s-era definition of 'professional degree' that doesn't include nursing. If their proposed changes go through, federal student loans would be capped at $100,000—which doesn't come close to covering many graduate nursing programs today.
Translation: The very people who write the textbooks that shape our practice won't be able to afford the education to write them.
Think about it. Those fundamentals I learned in the 90s? They've evolved dramatically—not because nursing standards changed, but because graduate-prepared nurses advanced them to meet modern healthcare realities. That's how professions grow. That's how we serve patients better.
Without access to graduate education, we're essentially telling future nursing leaders: 'Thanks, but we'll stick with what we knew in 1995.'
Here's what you can do:
The comment period is open NOW through March 2. Block 20 minutes on your calendar this week to submit your comment at www.ncnurses.org/loancaps Tell them why graduate nursing education matters—to you, to your patients, to the future of healthcare.
Because if we want nursing to keep evolving, we need to make sure the people shaping tomorrow can actually afford to get there.
"
®
