A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education
Families are struggling to pay the bills, put food on the table, and keep up with rising tuition and stagnant wages, and students are taking on crushing debt to pursue a degree. The American Association of University Professors and the AFT are fighting to make college the public good it should be: affordable and accessible, a driver of world-leading research that saves lives and powers our economy, and central to a vibrant democracy. Read our blueprint to learn more about how we can strengthen and transform higher education and join us to put higher education on the ballot in November.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Republicans in Congress signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2025, strips critical funding from our colleges and universities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. These changes make college unaffordable for most of us and unattainable for some, and they undermine critical scientific and medical research that benefits us all.
These new policies will:
Increase Costs for Students and Their Families
❌ Cut nearly $300 billion in student aid, making college less affordable and accessible for everyone.
❌ Take away options for income-driven repayment plans for 12.49 million borrowers; the typical college graduate will spend nearly $3,000 more per year on loan payments.
❌ Steal $761 million from university endowments, which are used to fund financial aid for families and students as well as scientific and critical medical research, as part of a war on higher education that will hurt everyone in the United States. There will now be less funding available to help fund student financial aid and scientific research.
Decrease Protections for Students and Weakens Communities
❌ Force 425,824 students into private loans lacking consumer protections by eliminating grad PLUS loans, meaning borrowers can be exploited with no way to fight back and eligibility to for Public Service Loan Forgiveness will be cut off for most public service workers with a graduate degree.
❌ Threaten programs that prepare critical professions—like early educators, teachers and social workers who help our students—by eliminating programs’ access to federal financial aid based on income level and forcing colleges and universities into offering specific and limited courses of study.
❌ End meaningful borrower defense relief for students who were scammed by predatory colleges, such as the 1.7 million defrauded students who’ve successfully recouped their losses.
Federal higher ed grant funding targeted for termination (National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation only)
Science & Community Impacts Mapping Project: Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research
Trump's Big Ugly Betrayal will make higher education less affordable and accessible in every state just to give another handout to billionaires.
To learn more about the impact of these cuts on students and colleges in your state click below:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
Public Student Loan Forgiveness
Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a federal program for people who work full time in the public sector or in certain nonprofit organizations. It enables borrowers to have their remaining federal student loan balance forgiven once they’ve made 120 qualifying payments over ten years. Nearly every AFT member works for a qualifying employer. However, recent court cases, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and executive directives have narrowed the range of affordable income-driven repayment plans, eviscerated safeguards that protect borrowers from predatory actors, and significantly worsened the servicing of federal student loans.
A path to loan forgiveness remains, and the AFT is committed to ensuring that current public service workers can access their rights to loan forgiveness under the law while expanding options for affordable payments and other relief. Visit the AFT’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness page to see how we’re fighting for student loan borrowers at www.aft.org/pslf, and enroll in an upcoming AFT student debt clinic at go.aft.org/AFTAffordabilityClinic to learn what your options are for federal student loan repayment.