In all 330 pages of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), the term “student” is used 146 times.

Having read and researched everything related to students in the OBBBA (so you don’t have to), it is evident that the Trump administration is and will continue its attacks on the Department of Education, affecting students nationwide.

What is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act?

The OBBBA is a federal bill signed into law on July 4 by President Donald Trump that primarily seeks to implement tax cuts and reduce federal spending. After just one month of the bill’s implementation, many are already seeing its effects. The central question is, how does this affect students?

Limitations on Student Loans

According to a study by the Education Data Initiative, 61 percent of graduate students borrow federal loans.

And now, due to the OBBBA, students enrolled in graduate or professional programs will be subject to a yearly and lifetime student loan limit starting on July 1, 2026.

Prior to the OBBBA, there were loan caps for two out of the four loan plans. Currently, there are four types of loans that are available for undergraduate and graduate students.

But this time next year, the direct PLUS loan will be eliminated, meaning that graduate and professional students will not be able to choose a plan that does not come with loan caps.

For an in-state resident, the estimate for one year of UC Santa Cruz’s graduate program is $57,438. Disregarding any potential tuition hikes from the university, two years would cost $114,876 — $14,000 more than the new aggregate loan cap.

For an out-of-state resident, the estimated tuition is around $15,000 more, totaling to $72,540. For two years, this would amount to $145,080 — $45,000 more than the aggregate loan cap.

For students looking to continue their education, it may become more difficult for them to finance their education without private loans or scholarships. For future professional students, the absence of the grad PLUS loan could prove to be even more detrimental.

The estimated cost of the first year of medical school at UCLA is $97,916. For four years of attendance, barring tuition hikes and inflation, the approximate total cost is $380,091 — around $180,000 more than the new loan cap.

Repayment Plan Reductions

On top of the student loan caps, the OBBBA will eliminate and replace the current seven repayment plans for student loans with two income-based plans: the standard plan and the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP).

The standard plan now determines the fixed period of time a borrower will repay their loan depending on how much they owe.

The RAP offers assistance to those who can’t meet the monthly payments. Rather than being dependent on the amount of money owed, monthly payments would be based on the borrowers’ adjusted gross income (AGI). The higher the AGI, the more the borrower has to pay per month.

Federal Cuts to Healthcare

Medicaid is a joint federal-state program that provides aid for over 71 million Americans. The bill will cut billions of dollars from Medicaid to fund tax cuts, leaving 3 in 10 young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 susceptible to losing healthcare. As of 2023, an estimated 3.5 million college students are enrolled in Medicaid.

The bill also adds work requirements for citizens to be eligible for Medicaid. Under the subchapter titled “Increasing Personal Accountability,” it states that every six months, any able-bodied individual between the ages of 19 and 64 must demonstrate enrollment in an educational, work-related or community service program for at least 80 hours a month.

A letter from the Congressional Budget Office estimates that by the year 2034, the OBBBA will increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 7.8 million.

So How Does Everything Come Together?

The OBBBA targets our most vulnerable communities: parents, children, students, people of color and members of marginalized communities. This legislation makes higher education less accessible for younger generations who see higher education as an end goal.

The incoming tax cuts leave less money for federal-funded programs and projects, including roads, education and healthcare, leaving millions of low-income families at risk. More so, the cuts could potentially increase our national debt.

Those who are currently fighting to survive will be forced to fight harder.

What Can We Expect Going Forward?

The changes from the OBBBA will no doubt inflict harm on low-income families, students and those in need of healthcare. We will continue to see the effects of the tax cuts trickle down into federally funded programs, such as our healthcare and education systems.

The federal law is out of our hands. The Trump administration’s actions are something that we cannot change, something that is implemented into our history without our choosing.

That being said, we do have control over our knowledge. Our education of legislation is something that the government cannot take away from us. We can use this knowledge to weave through the obstacles that the Trump administration throws at us, and fight back against this tyranny.

To the Big Ugly Bill: The fight does not end here.