25 States Sue Ed Department Over Grad Student Loan Limits

States say the education department's loan limits could prevent aspiring nurses from pursuing their careers.

Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | SDI Productions/E+/Getty Images

Half the states in the country and Washington, D.C., sued the Education Department Tuesday, asking a judge to vacate the agency’s decision to subject students in all but a few graduate programs to the most stringent new federal loan limits.

At stake is students’ access to their desired careers, universities’ ability to charge them what they deem a degree should cost and the nation’s supply of health-care workers, among other matters.

The states—all led by either a Democratic governor or a Democratic attorney general—that filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Maryland seek to overturn parts of ED’s rule implementing loan limits created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).