New Federal Rule Threatens Graduate Access—and the Workforce Pipeline Schools Depend On

The Story

As schools across the nation confront persistent shortages—not only of teachers, but also of principals, superintendents, counselors, and mental health professionals—a recently finalized federal rule (that goes into effect on July 1) risks further destabilizing the education workforce at every level.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), signed into law last July, contains provisions that reshape financial aid, including changes to federal student loan programs. These changes include the elimination of the Graduate PLUS Loan program, the longstanding federal funding for graduate students, and capping the amount of other loans—known as Direct Unsubsidized Loans—at either $100,000 for programs designated as “graduate” and $200,000 for those designated as “professional.”

In May, the Department of Education passed a proposal—part of its Reimagining and Improving Student Education initiative—that defines only 11 programs in specific fields such as law, medicine, and dentistry as “professional,” meaning that those seeking advanced degrees in others, such as education and nursing, would be limited to the “graduate” lifetime loan amounts.

The expert

Dean Katharine O. Strunk is the George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. A nationally recognized economist of education, she studies how policy decisions shape educator and school leader labor markets, preparation pathways, and access to opportunity.

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Photo: Joe Mac Creative

HER TAKE

Dean Strunk said that the regulation fundamentally misrepresents how the education profession actually functions. Teachers, counselors, school leaders, and district administrators require graduate-level training, licensure, and credentialing. Yet the new rule treats education as though advanced training were discretionary rather than a professional necessity.

“These roles are integral to schools’ capacity to support student learning, mental health, safety, and instructional improvement,” Dean Strunk said. “They are not optional. They are essential.”

The rule also defines program length only in terms of full-time enrollment, overlooking a key feature of educator preparation: many teachers and school leaders pursue graduate education while working full-time. Dean Strunk said that principals, assistant principals, and aspiring superintendents overwhelmingly enroll in part-time working-professional programs, balancing leadership roles with coursework required for licensure and advancement.

By narrowing access to federal loan support, Dean Strunk warns, the rule will raise barriers for educators already serving in schools—making it harder for teachers to become principals, for principals to become superintendents, and for districts to build stable leadership pipelines. At a time when leadership turnover is accelerating and vacancies are increasingly difficult to fill, she argues, the proposal would work directly against workforce stability.

She had advocated for changes to the rule when it was first proposed. In a public comment made to the Department of Education in March, she argued for inclusion of credential-required education programs in the “professional” student category, the removal of the proposed doctoral-level requirements, the adjustment of the definitions of program length to reflect part-time formats, and the guarantee that supervised practice requirements—like school counselor clinical hours—are protected.

“Federal policy must reflect the real structure of the education profession—from classrooms to central offices—and actively support access to graduate training for teachers, counselors, and school leaders,” she said. “Otherwise, we risk weakening the very systems schools rely on to meet students’ academic and social-emotional needs.”

Shortages by the numbers

This new rule couldn’t come at a worse time. It will narrow federal loan eligibility for aspiring educators, leaders, and school counselors just when districts across the country are struggling to fill those positions.

Nearly 1 in 5 students attends a school without access to a counselor. *

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40% of principals expect to leave the profession within three years. **

1 in 8 teaching positions nationally is either unfilled or filled by someone not fully certified. ***

365,967 across the country aren’t certified for their teaching assignments
45,582 teaching positions are unfilled

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The U.S. faces a massive shortage of 611,000 educators through 2032. ****

*National Center for Education Statistics
**National Association of Secondary School Principals survey
***Learning Policy Institute fact sheet 2025
****Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce report

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