The Trump administration finalized a regulation limiting federal student loan amounts for graduate students in education programs by excluding education from the list of “professional” graduate degrees subject to higher loan caps. The regulation sets higher borrowing limits for qualifying professional fields ($50,000 annually; $200,000 total) and lower caps for non-professional fields ($20,500 annually; $100,000 total). Higher education labor and policy groups, including a coalition led by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, warn the change could reduce enrollment in graduate education programs and exacerbate shortages for roles such as special education teachers, principals, and district administrators. The coalition also argued the prorating of part-time limits is likely to further constrain education master’s students. The Department of Education’s approach ties loan eligibility to its policy definition of degree categories, making this a direct compliance and enrollment-risk issue for schools of education and their recruitment pipelines.