Every day across this country, people are working, raising families, and studying late into the night because education is the path they believe can lead to a more stable future.

I am one of those people.

I have spent years working toward my bachelor’s degree while raising a child and trying to build a better life for my family. Like many others, I believed that if I worked hard enough and kept pushing forward, graduate school would be the next step toward a stable career and a future where I could better support my child.

I want my child to grow up believing that hard work can build a future, not learning that opportunity only exists for those who were born into wealth.

But that path is now being threatened.

Graduate school in the United States can cost anywhere from $80,000 to more than $200,000. For working and middle class families, those costs are impossible to pay out of pocket.

For years, the Grad PLUS loan program has been one of the only ways students without family wealth could cover the remaining cost of graduate education.

More than 1.8 million Americans have relied on Grad PLUS loans to pursue advanced degrees, and roughly 440,000 graduate students depend on this program each year. These are parents, first generation college students, working adults, and young people striving to enter professions our communities urgently need.

The Grad PLUS loan program is scheduled to be eliminated beginning in July 2026.

If this program disappears, hundreds of thousands of students could lose the only federal option that allows them to finance the full cost of graduate school. For many people, this will not mean choosing another loan. It will mean abandoning their education altogether.

This decision affects more than individual students. It affects the future doctors who will care for our communities, the mental health professionals our country desperately needs, the teachers who shape the next generation, and the researchers working to solve tomorrow’s problems.

Education should be the ladder that allows people to climb toward a better future. Removing the financial tools that make that climb possible pulls the ladder away from the very people trying the hardest to reach it.

Graduate education should never become something only the wealthy can pursue. Students who are willing to work hard, sacrifice, and dedicate years to improving their skills deserve a fair chance to continue their education.

Please add your name and share this petition so more people understand what is at stake. The more voices that speak up, the harder it becomes for leaders to ignore the impact this decision will have on millions of Americans.

For those who would also like to make their voice heard through the official federal record, public comments can be submitted through the Department of Education rulemaking docket on regulations.gov. 

The changes affecting graduate loan programs are documented under Docket ID: ED-2025-OPE-0944.