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County Clerk Lisa Tollefson.
Thank you.

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>> Thank you.
>> With Wisconsin trying to

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tackle a physician shortage,
new limits around graduate

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student federal loans could
dissuade some would be

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doctors from going to
medical school at all. New

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federal provisions passed
as part of the One Big

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Beautiful Bill act, set
lower borrowing limits for

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medical and law students
and eliminate grad Plus

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loans for what the changes
mean for graduates and

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undergraduates. Were joined
by a specialist in this

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area, Nick Hillman,
professor in the UW-Madison

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School of Education. And
professor, thanks very much

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for being here.
>> Of course. Thank you for

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the invitation.
>> How big of a sea change

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is this when it comes to
federal student loans?

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>> It's significant for two
main reasons. One is that

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these are now amendments to
the Higher Education Act.

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So these are now laws. And
a lot of student loan

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policy has been done
through regulations. And so

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it's a big sea change
because it really

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galvanizes these changes
into legal statutes. So

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that's one thing. Which
means it's also going to be

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harder to change over time.
But the other thing is that

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it just really shifts the
flavor of student loans,

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how students are going to
be interacting with the

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loan system. And it brings
some simplicities to the

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system, but it also brings
some complexities.

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into that a little bit. But
have you heard of medical

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students say deciding not
to attend medical school

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because of kind of the caps
on borrowing?

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>> I've heard rumblings of
this. I haven't heard that

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directly from prospective
students, but I have heard

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concerns in different
forums and through

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different networks about
what does this mean for me

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in terms of how to pay for
college? If loans are less

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available to me, then I
have two options. I can go

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and try to find a loan in
the private market which

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might have high interest
rates. Or I can decide

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maybe I should do something
else with my career. And I

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think that's the tension
that either people are

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already feeling or they
will soon be feeling.

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>> So the law also
eliminates I understand the

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grad plus loan. What will
that mean?

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>> Well, the Grad Plus loan
is pretty significant.

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About 17% of all federal
student loans are in that

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program. And so this is a
sizable share of federal

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student loans. And if
that's no longer available

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to borrowers, then again,
they'll likely go out to

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the private sector, to
banks or to different

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lenders and take out loans
that could be as high as

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25% interest rates. These
loans currently have. The

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plus loans currently have
like 8 or 9% interest rates.

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>> Do you know what the
justification for all of

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this was?
>> To save money for the

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One Big Beautiful Bill act.
I believe it's in the

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hundreds of billions of
dollars. 270 billion is one

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Congressional Budget Office
estimate of how much some

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of these changes have saved
the federal government. And

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ultimately, that's the end
game here, is to restrict

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the amount of spending that
the federal government does.

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>> Back to details. There
were also changes to loan

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repayments. Is that
significant?

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>> That is in a couple of
different ways. So this is

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what I said earlier about
the simplicity and the

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complexity. There's some
things that I think are

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pretty popular about the
new repayment options for

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borrowers. There is now
basically just two

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different options that
borrowers can have starting

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in 2026. They could do a
standard repayment plan

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that's pegged to how much
they borrowed, and then

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they could do a repayment
assistance plan that's

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pegged to how much they
earn. And so in either of

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those cases, the idea is to
have loan repayment be more

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sensitive to borrowers
economic circumstances.

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However, there are some
details that also make it

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more difficult and even
potentially punitive for

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some of the lowest income
borrowers.

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>> Interestingly, also,
there's new accountability

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standards for
undergraduates. What's that?

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>> There are. And this is
something that's really

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much on my radar is
essentially a bachelor's

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degree recipient, has to
earn more than a high

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school graduate at some
point in their future. And

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that by itself doesn't seem
very problematic. That's

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kind of the whole point of
education is to boost your

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economic well-being. But
there are a lot of majors

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and academic programs where
the gap between a high

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school graduate and a
college graduate are not

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that large. And so these
accountability measures are

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going to starting in 2026,
they're going to start to

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identify what academic
universities across the

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country are showing that
positive return above a

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high school graduate. And I
worry that maybe it's not

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this year, maybe it's not
next year. But at some

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point down the road, a lot
of programs that produce

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graduates who go into
public sector and nonprofit

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work that tend to have low
wages are going to be

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either penalized by being
with, you know, withheld

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federal funds. Or colleges
might just say, we're not

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going to do this. It's too
risky to run this program

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anymore.
>> Lastly, do you think

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that student borrowers know
about these changes?

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>> No, I think there's a
lot of confusion. And one

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of the big struggles that I
see and I'm hearing about

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is the timeline of all of
these changes are supposed

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to be taking place July 1st,
2026. That's ten months

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away. And so prospective
students, current students,

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and current borrowers are
all wondering. There's

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already been several years
of a lot of

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miscommunication, confusion
and misunderstanding about

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the student loan system.
And I'm worried, especially

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as the federal government
of Education has laid off

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at least 50% of staff at
the Department of Education.

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I'm very concerned about
how this will be

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implemented and how well it
will be implemented.