Two major physician assistant advocacy organizations have taken the Education Department to court over its controversial decision to cap student loans for PA programs at significantly lower levels than for other graduate health professions, marking the latest legal assault on the Biden administration's borrowing restrictions.
The American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) and the PA Education Association filed their complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the department's impending rule change illegally excludes PA programs from the higher borrowing limits granted to professional degree programs such as medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy.
Under the rule published in the Federal Register last month, graduate students can borrow up to $100,000 total and $20,500 annually, while professional degree students can borrow up to $200,000 total and $50,000 annually. The department designated only 11 programs as professional degrees—including chiropractic, optometry, osteopathy, podiatry, and veterinary medicine—but left physician assistant programs out of that category.
That distinction has devastating consequences, according to AAPA CEO Lisa Gables. “PA programs meet every element of the professional degree definition that Congress established in law; they award entry-level master’s degrees, require rigorous clinical training, and lead to professional licensure in all 50 states,” Gables said in a statement Wednesday.
The median tuition for in-state PA students is nearly $97,000, and for out-of-state students it exceeds $101,200, according to AAPA data. When housing, fees, supplies, and other required expenses are factored in, the total cost of attendance “often exceeds” $200,000—far more than the $100,000 total borrowing cap for graduate students.
The lawsuit argues the rule violates the Administrative Procedure Act by adding requirements to the definition of professional degree that Congress never authorized. The Education Department acknowledged receiving “numerous comments asserting that PA programs should be treated” as professional degrees, but it declined to do so, stating it “does not interpret the existence of a master’s level entry credential, national examination, or formal licensure structure as sufficient.”
The department defended its reasoning in the rule, saying that observations about “variation in credential level, licensure, scope of practice, prescribing authority, collaboration requirements, or supervision structures” do not create a new regulatory test but rather explain “why the Department does not view PA pathways as fitting within the incorporated professional degree framework Congress chose to reference.”
The groups are seeking a preliminary injunction to block the rule before it takes effect on July 1. The Hill has reached out to the Education Department for comment.
This is not the only legal challenge to the borrowing limits. Democratic attorneys general from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C., filed suit last month, arguing the caps will strain the healthcare workforce by discouraging students from entering medical fields. Nursing advocacy groups also sued last week in Massachusetts federal court, contending the rule “will concretely and imminently harm” nursing students, who are also excluded from the professional degree category.
The cascade of litigation underscores growing bipartisan concern that the Education Department's narrow interpretation of professional degrees could exacerbate shortages in critical healthcare roles at a time when demand for services is rising.
