WSU pushes back against $200K GOP loan cap aimed at curbing tuition hikes

(The Center Square) – After nearly 20 years of unlimited taxpayer-backed loans, Washington State University is warning that a new cap on federal borrowing for medical students may hinder enrollment.

Congress eliminated the 2006 GradPlus loan program last month in passing President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” Similar to pre-2006, graduate students will face lifetime limits on federal borrowing starting next July, capped at $200,000, which is over $60,000 more than the limit two decades ago.

GradPlus allowed students to borrow a limitless amount of taxpayer dollars to avoid private loans – a move that some argue led to unsustainable tuition hikes. Medical associations say capping loans could worsen a provider shortage, but data shows many students graduate with less debt than the new cap.

“While Biden and Democrats unfairly attempted to shift student debt onto taxpayers that chose not to go to college,” U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., wrote in June, “Republicans are taking on the root causes of the student debt crisis to lower the cost of tuition and improve Americans’ access to opportunities.”

Republicans see the caps as a way to force universities to control costs. Still, WSU released information on Saturday suggesting that the threshold would limit who could pursue a medical career. According to the report, only about 44% of its medical students graduated with $200,000 or more in debt in 2024.

The Association of American Medical Colleges put the median cost of attending a public medical school at $286,454 in 2025, and $390,848 for private institutions. However, AAMC data also shows that the average WSU medical student graduates with $197,072 in debt, compared to 153 schools nationwide.

In contrast, AAMC puts the average debt for each graduate at $190,758 when including the 152 other schools, with only 66 out of them reporting debt over $200,000. WSU claims it’s more impacted due to only 14% of its students coming from the highest income bracket, compared to 43% nationwide.

“Most medical students are not employed while in school,” wrote Dr. Leila Harrison, vice dean for admissions, student affairs, and alumni engagement at the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine. “If they don’t have family support, savings, or scholarships, they rely on borrowing to cover their [costs].”

AAMC rejected the notion in June that tuition was rising unsustainably due to GradPlus loans since the median cost of tuition, fees, and health insurance had hovered around the rate of inflation since 2015.

The association cited rising living expenses that have outpaced inflation since 2022 as a justification, suggesting the $200,000 cap would have a lesser impact on universities raising tuition. Still, about a year ago, it also reported that public medical school tuition and fees were, in fact, surpassing inflation.

“Over a 21-year period, indexed year-over-year percentage change in tuition and fees revenues increased by 81% across all medical schools,” AAMC reported in 2024.

That analysis found that public medical school tuition and fees increased 103% since 2001, outpacing general inflation, while private institutions only rose 66%. Meanwhile, “state and parent institution support revenues for public medical schools declined by 6%,” according to the AAMC Data Snapshot.

According to reporting by The Center Square, the Washington State Legislature’s budget has ballooned over recent decades as lawmakers pull back funding to prioritize new spending. WSU isn’t immune to those cuts or the consequences of higher taxes driving up the cost of living, like AAMC has suggested.

While many students face higher costs than allowed by the cap on federal borrowing, they can still apply for private loans, as was common before 2006, shifting much of that risk from taxpayers to private lenders.

“This bill puts downward pressure on rising college costs by limiting graduate school borrowing,” Cassidy said in May. “When students leave college in debt and without hope for a brighter future, the American people lose trust in higher ed.”