Trump’s Spending Bill Makes Devastating Cuts Across K-12, Higher Education
Bill defunds education by diminishing student loan options, reducing affordability
July 9, 2025
CHICAGO- Today, Governor JB Pritzker laid out the ongoing impact of Trump and Congressional Republicans’ budget bill, which defunds crucial support for working families in favor of tax cuts for Trump’s wealthy friends – including substantial programming cuts that eliminate education opportunities in America. The bill targets program funding, hurts working families with school-age children, and holds back student loan borrowers of all ages.
“Since my first day as Governor, I’ve worked to make education across our state more affordable, more accessible, and more equitable—providing Illinois students with the opportunities needed to become the leaders of tomorrow,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This destructive bill is a major setback for students across the nation and will create further barriers to success for students at all levels—from kindergarten to grad school. Here in Illinois, we’ll do everything in our power to protect the public education systems we’ve worked so hard to improve and continue supporting students in every way we can.”
K-12
The federal spending bill defunds programs that support working families with school-age children by:
- Eliminating SNAP-Ed, the national education and obesity prevention grant program, which works with state and community partners to deliver nutrition education lessons,
- Reducing access to healthcare and meals for public school students by cutting Medicaid and SNAP benefits for their families,
- Creating a new tax credit refund that benefits private school donors who pay for tuition vouchers, potentially reducing state and federal funding for public schools that experience a decline in student enrollment, and
- Rescinding funding to address air pollution in schools through U.S. EPA.
The State of Illinois has substantially improved K-12 adequacy levels and increased funding to EBF by $2.1B since Governor Pritzker took office. Additionally, through the Teacher Vacancy Pilot Program, Illinois is closing the gap to improve teacher recruitment and retention.
Higher Education
This federal spending bill aims to threaten college affordability for working-class students across Illinois by:
- Reducing annual limits for graduate and parent loans
- Non-professional graduate students (MA, PhD) will be limited to $20,500 per year in unsubsidized Stafford loans, and professional students (JD, MD, DO, DDS) will be limited to $50,000 per year in unsubsidized Stafford loans.
- Grad PLUS loans, which do not require a co-signer and often help students cover the full cost of attendance, will be eliminated beginning July 1, 2026. Nearly 23,000 Illinois graduate students currently utilize Grad PLUS loans.
- Parent PLUS loans, which currently have no limit and allow parents to borrow to alleviate college expense for their students based on cost-of-attendance, will now be limited to $20,000 per year for each dependent student.
- Slashing options for student loan repayment:
- This bill reduces student loan repayment plan options from seven to only two. Many Illinois borrowers could end up paying more than expected on their loans under these plans.
- Illinois student loan borrowers who are unemployed or suffering an economic hardship will no longer be eligible to defer student loan payments. Without the ability to defer payments during tough times, more borrowers may fall behind on their loans, leading to defaults and negative impacts on their credit scores, home-buying, and employment opportunities.
The Pritzker administration will continue its track record of improving college affordability across the state. Under Governor Pritzker’s leadership, the state has increased MAP grant funding for college students by $320M and improved public university and community college funding by nearly $255M.
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