(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Nurses United (NNU) and the National AFL-CIO have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, challenging the Agency’s new rule that limits the amount of Federal loans students can borrow for graduate education in some of our most critical and understaffed professions.

The new Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) rule designates Nursing, Teaching, Public Health and other Public Service Degrees as “graduate,” rather than “professional,” which would cap the amount of loans students can take out to pursue those fields.

AFSCME President Lee Saunders said: “The same Administration that cut health care to give billionaires more tax cuts is now trying to make it impossible for Advanced Practice Nurses, Social Workers, Public Health Professionals and others to afford the education they need to care for our communities. The Court must strike down this illegal rule to protect quality patient care, social services and public health, and ensure Workers aren’t priced out of these Critical Public Service Professions.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “One of the most cynical, cruel components of the Trump Tax Bill was the cuts to the Higher Education Student Loan Program. Now the effect is clear: By ‘de-professionalizing’ nursing, architecture, social work, teaching and countless other careers, the Trump administration is eviscerating education access for poor and Working-Class students and their families and dismantling pathways to the Middle Class.”

NNU President Jamie Brown said: “This decision to exclude graduate Nursing students from professional loans is an attack on the Nursing Profession. The rule change affects Nurses pursuing a graduate degree to be a Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Midwife or Certified Nurse Anesthetist.”

National AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said: “This rule shuts out the next generation of Nurses, Social Workers and Public Health Professionals before they even get started. The Department of Education may have decided these degrees don’t count as ‘professional,’ but communities who rely on these essential services know that this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The AFL-CIO is in this fight because no Worker who dedicates their life to public service should be priced out of it.”

For More On This Labor News Story, Go To: Unions Join Legal Fight Against Trump’s Student Loan Limits Rule