Talks Over Loan Caps See Some Progress

College aviation programs are pushing the Education Department to designate them as professional and allow their students to access higher levels of federal loans.

So far, the lobbying effort has included a slew of public comments from aviation associations, airlines and aerospace institutions as well as a letter from a bipartisan group of more than 30 senators. Together, the air travel advocates argue that the bachelor’s degree necessary for a pilot’s license meets the same standards as a doctorate in medicine or law, which are more commonly cited as professional programs. And if aviation training isn’t treated as professional, they say, it will only further exacerbate an already dramatic shortage of commercial pilots.

The Education Department hasn’t publicly commented on the request, but officials and an advisory committee are set to decide this week which programs should be make the cut for larger loans.

Congress created the loan caps in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed over the summer. But the Education Department is under a time crunch, as the caps take effect in less than eight months. That’s where this week’s meeting comes in, as the advisory committee and the department work to craft the regulations and define the terms needed to implement the bill.

Currently, undergraduates can only receive up to $7,500 per year in federal loans, and once the legislation takes effect, graduate students can receive $20,500 per year while professional students can receive $50,000 per year. Since the Education Department started crafting the regulations, representatives of various disciplines such as health care, education, architecture and social work have lobbied to have their fields of study categorized as professional.

The Education Department originally proposed including only 10 specific degrees, including pharmacy, dentistry and theology, but not aviation or any of the other industries of concern. (The department’s proposal closely follows an existing definition outlined in the Higher Education Act of 1965.)

Two days into the department’s second week of rule making, it remains unclear what, if any, other industries will be added to that list. The committee continues to make progress, and it appears as though health care will be the most likely to succeed.

Still, pilot-training programs continue to push to be included.

Data from the Regional Airline Association shows that nearly half of all current pilots will be forced to retire within the next 15 years due to mandatory age limits. And that scarcity will only be compounded by a declining number of military-trained pilots transitioning to the commercial industry when their time in uniform comes to an end, they say. Advocates argue that if college students pursuing a career in aviation can’t access higher loan amounts, it will make an existing problem worse.

“If we’re going to keep air travel as an option for folks in this country, we need to have pilots,” said Sharon DeVivo, president of Vaughn College, a private nonprofit institution focused on aeronautics. “This degree program is absolutely tied to workforce demand. So you’ve got demand, ability of graduates to pay back their loans and a program that meets the regulations for professional—that feels like a safe decision to make.”

Some Progress Made

The negotiating committee, which is made up of a variety of university leaders, state officials and higher ed legal experts, has to reach consensus on the loan cap definition and a variety of other policies by Friday. Otherwise, the department will be free to move forward with its own proposal, which will be subject to public comment.

The bulk of the loan cap discussion Tuesday revolved around a proposal put forward by a committee member that would somewhat expand the professional definition to more programs beyond ED’s list without opening the floodgates. The plan was first proposed during week one of negotiations in early October, but at the time, the department preferred its own plan to essentially push off the loan caps a year.

Trump officials scrapped the idea for a delay ahead of this week’s meeting and now appeared open to the plan from Alex Holt, the committee member representing taxpayers and the public interest.

Holt’s plan would add on to the existing HEA definition to include any program that requires a level of skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor’s degree, leads to practice in a particular profession, takes at least 80 credit hours to complete and uses the same first two CIP code digits as an existing program on the department’s list, with the exception being clinical psychology. (A CIP code, otherwise known as the Classification of Instructional Programs, is part of an organizational system used by ED to group similar academic programs.)

As a result, most of the programs that would be added to the list fall in the health-care category.

While ED officials challenged Holt’s plan on a number of fronts at first, they appeared more amenable by the end of the day.

“I think we’re going to properly stay with [Holt’s] definition and maybe look at possible changes to it,” Jeffrey Andrade, deputy assistant secretary for policy, planning and innovation, said when asked if he had a new proposal of his own to offer.

The several committee members Inside Higher Ed spoke with on condition of anonymity said they were generally pleased with Andrade’s answer and hopeful about the rest of the week ahead.

“We appreciate the department’s willingness to seek a workable solution,” one said. “While we are here to focus on more manageable student loans and debt, these professional designations also pertain to state economic/workforce development. We need to find the balance to meet both of these concerns.”

Another described the tone of the conversation as one of “mutual cooperation and respect.”

“I don’t agree with nor do I support everything that is presented,” the member added, “but I am convinced the negotiators, including me, are committed to reaching consensus to ensure our contributions are codified in the regulations.”

Clare McCann, a former department appointee under the Biden administration who now serves as managing director of the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University, said this was “the most detailed discussion” yet.

“There’s lots of details still to be worked out, and negotiators’ individual interests were definitely starting to come out of the woodwork more than we’ve seen so far,” McCann said. “But it seems that there may be a path forward for some kind of consensus.”

Meeting the Definition

Still, under Holt’s language many programs—including aviation—would not be included. Nonetheless, pilot training advocates continue to lobby for their programs.

Flight education programs are uniquely regulated by both the Department of Education and the Federal Aviation Administration. And combined, the policies from each agency lead to intense safety requirements and high costs when it comes to both time and resources, aviation advocates say. (These programs have pushed in recent years for exemptions from the current undergraduate loan cap.)

For example, in order to earn an airline transport pilot certification, the commercial pilot’s license required for captain’s positions at most major airlines, a student must log at least 1,500 hours of flight training beyond the 120 credit hours of ground training included in their bachelor’s degree. DeVivo from Vaughn College said, logging these extra hours takes time and can cost between $80,000 and $100,000 on top of general tuition.

It’s for these very reasons that she and other aviation associations argue baccalaureate pilot training programs deserve to be designated as professional.

“We meet the [original HEA] definition,” she said. “I believe that this administration understands the link between workforce development and the importance of this interpretation of law, and so I have hope that they will not miss an opportunity to fund programs that are directly tied to things that make our economy work.”

She and other advocates added these programs do pay off for students. According to senators’ letter, the median salary for commercial airline pilots now exceeds $226,000.

One committee member, however, said there’s “no way to legally justify their inclusion into the definition.” And outside higher ed experts echoed that skepticism.

Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, said the aviation industry has “large corporate customers and higher earnings,” so it’s reasonable to ask if airlines, plane manufacturers or even private lenders should cover the cost instead of taxpayers.

McCann from PEER said she’s not surprised that the industry groups are pushing to qualify for higher loan caps, but she added that the department did not sound particularly open to expanding Holt’s definition any further.

“If anything,” she said, “they sounded like they were looking to narrow the proposal further.”