Trump loan cap could force colleges to FINALLY cut tuition

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]The administration is capping student loans for master and professional degrees. Didn't know that. Connor Hansen has the story. He's on Capitol Hill for us. Why are they capping the amount that students can borrow?

[00:00:12]Stewart, the Trump administration is betting that this will force universities to lower their tuition costs, but critics argue it will only make it harder for students to get those advanced degrees. Now, this rule only applies to graduate degrees capping borrowing at just over $20,000 per year and $100,000 total. Loans for medical and law degrees will be a little bit higher at 50K per year and 200,000 in total. Current borrowers are exempt for the next 3 years. Education Secretary Linda McMahon says, "Right now, only a quarter of the 43 million student borrowers are actually repaying their loans."

[00:00:52]A student could go to a university and whatever that university said was the cost of the graduate program, that's how much you could borrow.

[00:00:59]Just It was just that simple.

[00:01:02]Colleges have faced mounting questions about the return on investment from their degrees. Graduate school loans account for about $125 billion out of the $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio. Democrats in that hearing with McMahon said they're concerned the new rule could make it harder for nurses to get degrees at a time when more of them are needed.

[00:01:26]Why did you move forward with an action that you know is going to be creating a problem or worsening a problem that already exists?

[00:01:34]>> That was the overview that the that we looked at as we were writing this new rule making with the with the overall goal of putting caps in place that are going to reduce the cost of college.

[00:01:48]And this rule came out of last year's big, beautiful bill. It officially goes into effect on July 1st. Stewart.

[00:01:55]>> All right, Connor. Thank you.