How Student Loan Changes Endanger Public Health

When you price students out of public health, you price the public out of health. This isn't a student loan story, this is a public health story. A quiet shift in how the U.S. Department of Education determines eligibility for federal student loans has made it harder for masters of public health students and public health students broadly to access the funding that has historically allowed them to enter this field. Most people will read that and think that's unfortunate for those students. As someone who has attained their master of public health in 2019, I read that and think this puts the public's health at risk because this change isn't about who can afford graduate school or going into public health, it's about who gets to become a public health professional and what happens to communities when fewer people can. What actually changed and why it matters. Federal student loans were never designed for people chasing high-paying private sector careers. They were designed so people could enter public good professions. Professions like teaching, social work, nursing, public administration, and yes of course it includes public health. Careers that are essential to society but not compensated like corporate jobs most of the time. Careers that communities rely on. Careers where people commit decades of their lives to prevention, promotion, education, safety, and care. Public health degrees have always been one of those entry points. This new determination disrupts that pathway and when you disrupt that pathway into public good professions, the consequences don't stop at students. They land on the public and the public's health. A master of public health and a bachelor of public health is not just another degree. There's a subtle narrative underneath decisions like that that treats public health like an academic interest instead of a profession. But an MPH and a BSPH, they're not hobby degrees. It's not theoretical training. It teaches essential skills, knowledge, and frameworks to impact good on community. It is the gateway into a lifelong career, running immunization programs, preventing chronic disease, responding to outbreaks, building food systems, supporting maternal health, preparing communities for emergencies, educating the public on how to stay healthy. Studying public health is as much a professional degree as nursing, teaching, or social and communities rely on the people who hold it. Society at large benefits from those people who work. Who gets priced out first? The people most affected by this change are not the wealthy. They are first-generation college students, students of color, men of color in public health, people from rural communities. Also, career change is already working in low-paying public health roles and people who deeply understand the communities public health is meant to serve. The exact people we say we need in the field are the ones this decision makes the hardest to enter. Without federal loans, students are left with two main options. Don't pursue public health for now or forever or take on private, often predatory loans that make a low-paying career financially terrifying. Many will choose the first and the public health field and the public will feel that loss. Schools of public health will feel this too. There's a nuance here. Public health programs are often expensive, too expensive in my opinion, especially for those pursuing work in the public or non-profit sectors. This moment will put financial pressure on schools of public health and frankly that conversation is overdue. But you don't fix overpriced programs by removing access. You fix costs by addressing costs. You don't solve affordability by making entry harder for students. It's hard to tell what this ruling will do to the perception of careers in public health, but at the moment I don't think it's going to be anything positive. The workforce problem nobody is connecting. Public health is already experiencing an aging workforce, severe burnout, vacant positions in local health departments, difficulty recruiting new professions into government, non-profit and community roles. We already do not have enough people doing this work. This decision ensures we will have even fewer at a time when communities need more support, not less. This is the case especially as policies are aimed at hitting the most vulnerable communities, the ones that need more public health support. Here's a piece that won't make the headlines. For your people, entering public health means less capacity for disease prevention, environmental health protection, health education, emergency preparedness, maternal and child health programs, substance misuse prevention, chronic disease initiatives, to name a few. Prevention is invisible until it's gone. Governmental public health is already being stretched thin. The public will never connect the student loan decision to the next outbreak, to the next under-resourced county, or the next program that quietly disappears while no one realizes. But the connection is real and this is why we have to continue to stand up. Check out below public health as a professional degree by the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health for more information on how you can get more involved. You're asking people to take on more risk for less reward. This chain sends a message to aspiring public health professionals. Take on more financial risk. Enter a lower-paying field. Join a workforce experiencing burnout with less structural support than before. That is not how you build a profession people commit to for decades. Over time, public health risks becoming a profession primarily for people who can afford it, and that is dangerous. Because public health works best when the workforce reflects the communities it serves. When lived experience informs practice. When the field is accessible to the people called to the work, not just those that can financially manage it. What needs to happen? This moment calls for multiple conversations at once. Schools must address the cost of public health programs. Public health leaders must speak up. Employers must advocate for better pay. Students must be informed about what this means for them and their future. The field must treat this like the public health issue it is, because that's what it is. The bottom line here, if we make it harder to become a public health professional, we make it harder to protect the public's health. This decision will not show up in headlines. It will not be in the news. It will show up in fewer people protecting your community. It will show up in fewer under-resourced people pursuing public health. It will show up in the loss of infrastructure for public health. And by the time you feel it, it will be too late to connect the dots. Check out all the links below, support on the merch, like, subscribe, share this with someone else if you need coaching or any other support. Links below for your community. Hope you're all doing well. Peace everyone.