Editorial written by The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board.
Browse through professional job listings on LinkedIn or Indeed and you are likely to see “bachelor’s required, master’s preferred.” These days, it seems almost impossible to get an entry-level position without extra school.
As employers increasingly require master’s degrees, the number of degrees conferred has more than tripled from nearly 236,000 in 1970 to about 880,000 in 2022, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Education.
More students are opting to return to school in pursuit of higher education, but at what cost?
With more students looking to enroll, graduate programs are coming with higher prices and a greater need to borrow money to attend. A 2023 study used data from Texas graduate programs and found that for every additional dollar a graduate student borrowed from the federal government, their university raised tuition by 64 cents.
Graduate school can provide important training and skills to help students excel in their future careers. However, these programs often come with a hefty price tag and less access to financial aid than undergraduate programs, so many students have to take out loans.
President Donald Trump’s new tax and spending law is bringing big changes for graduate programs with loan caps. Most graduate students would be capped at $100,000, down from the previous cap of $138,500, and students pursuing professional degrees like law or medicine will be capped at $200,000. This will replace Grad PLUS loans, which currently allow unlimited borrowing up to the cost of attendance minus any federal aid.
We hope these caps on loans will help rein in the cost of these programs. Many struggling private and public schools rely on the money they take in from their graduate programs to stabilize undergraduate programs.
We don’t want our graduate students to pay for their schools’ financial problems. Students facing years of debt and loan repayments shouldn’t be the solution for colleges and universities strapped for cash.
