From lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu Tue Feb 3 13:09:59 2026 From: lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu (Francis M. Hult via Lgpolicy) Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2026 08:09:59 -0500 Subject: [Lgpolicy] USA - Comments Needed on Professional Student Definition by March 2 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please click here to view the web/mobile version [image: AACTE Office of the President and CEO] Dear colleague, I am writing to seek your engagement on an extremely important federal policy issue. As you may have seen, the U.S. Department of Education is working on regulations to implement the budget reconciliation bill passed last July (the "One Big Beautiful Bill" or OB3). These regulations exclude education students from the "professional student? category. This exclusion has profound symbolic and practical implications for our profession, students, and programs. It sends the horrible message that the federal government does not consider educators to be professionals. And, crucially, it cuts off our students from needed access to federal student loans, threatening their ability to enroll or remain in our post-baccalaureate programs. The Department of Education has published the Proposed Rule containing this restrictive definition of professional students and is inviting public comment by March 2, 2026. We must flood the Department with comments explaining the impact of this policy and seeking inclusion of all post-baccalaureate education students in the professional student category. I ask you to take the following actions to help ensure that your students have access to the financial aid they need: - Read and share our "Explainer" with more information on the student loan changes imposed by OB3 and the professional student definition. - Ensure that your institution is responding to the draft regulation and that it advocates for inclusion of education in the professional student category. - *Submit your own comments by March 2*, and encourage your colleagues, students, and K-12 partners to do the same. AACTE has prepared a Comment Guide to assist with your efforts. It has advice suitable for deans and other program leaders, individual faculty and students, and K-12 partners. We have also posted a short video with step-by-step instructions for submitting comments. Members of Congress are introducing bills that may also address this issue, and you will hear more from us soon about how you can support those efforts as well. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to our senior consultant, Jacqueline King, at jking at aacte.org. In this matter ? and all things ? we are *stronger together*. LEARN MORE AND TAKE ACTION [image: Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy] Thank you, Cheryl Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D. President & CEO AACTE [image: Untitled_design(3)_2747215.png] [image: Facebook Logo] [image: Instagram Logo] [image: X Logo] [image: LinkedIn Logo] American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE ?) One Dupont Circle, NW, Ste. 450, Office 405 | Washington, DC 20036 Phone: 202-293-2450 | Fax: 202-457-8095 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ Lgpolicy mailing list Lgpolicy at lists.mail.umbc.edu https://lists.mail.umbc.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy