CASEY RYAN: How The Big Beautiful Bill Impacts Education

Republicans in Congress have spent the last several months crafting a “Big Beautiful Bill” that has a sizable proportion of President Donald Trump’s agenda that he promised on the campaign trail. While the focus is understandably on cutting taxes for the American people, what this bill accomplishes for students in education has largely been overlooked.

Congress intends for the legislation to significantly overhaul student loans for postsecondary education. In May, members of the House Committee on Education and Workforce passed their part of the bill that would mandate colleges to pay “a portion of their students’ unpaid loans based on how much of a return on investment the degree provided.”

The House Committee explained institutions that continue to pile debt onto students will “risk loss of access to federal student aid.” In other words, the federal government will now hold colleges accountable for their actions.

If students amass significant debt earning a degree that did not help provide them with a career in the long run, colleges will now be responsible for that debt. This means that if universities continue to provide ideological degrees such as gender studies or ethnic studies, those same universities will bear the brunt of the costs for students who struggle to succeed in life. Universities that prioritize ideology over academia will now face the consequences and costs of their actions.

If Congress manages to pass the Big Beautiful Bill, caps will also be placed on how much debt students can take out for college. Undergraduate students will have a borrowing cap in place of $50,000 to ensure they do not sink into insurmountable debt. There will additionally be a $100,000 cap on loans for graduate students and a $150,000 cap for professional students.

In recent years, universities have increasingly raised the costs of their classes and created new programs that administrators know will not help their students in the real world. The bill introduces new safeguards for students while forcing universities to take responsibility for their predatory practices. Before the most recent presidential election, Joe Biden and his administration attempted to forgive billions of dollars in federal loans and succeeded to a certain extent. In 2022, the Biden administration attempted to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans for Americans.