Filed Date: June 3, 2026
Clearinghouse coding in progress
[This summary is temporary while we research the case]. On June 3, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the PA Education Association (PAEA) and the American Academy of Physician Associates (AAPA) filed a complaint against the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, challenging a final rule that plaintiffs alleged would effectively strip Physician Assistant (PA) students of access to higher federal loan limits. Since 2006, PA students had relied on graduate federal loan programs, including Grad PLUS loans, because PA degrees satisfied the existing regulatory definition of "professional degree." In 2025, Congress passed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," which eliminated the uncapped Grad PLUS program and established a new annual loan cap of $50,000 for "professional students," adopting the pre-existing regulatory definition of "professional degree." Then on May 1 2026, the DOE issued a Final Rule entitled "Reimagining and Improving Student Education," which rewrote the definition of "professional degree" by adding requirements—including that a qualifying degree be "generally at the doctoral level," require at least six academic years of postsecondary education, and share a specific CIP code with an enumerated list of programs— thereby excluding master's-level PA degrees from the higher loan cap. Plaintiffs alleged that this revision was unlawful. Plaintiffs further alleged that the Final Rule was internally inconsistent, because several degrees on the DOE's own approved list did not satisfy its newly imposed requirements, and that the DOE improperly relied on PA supervision requirements under state law (a factor appearing nowhere in the statute or the Final Rule's regulatory text) to conclude that PA degrees were not professional degrees. Asserting all three counts under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A) and (C), plaintiffs sought declaratory relief, vacatur of the Final Rule, and a preliminary injunction against its July 1, 2026 effective date.
Summary Authors
(6/14/2026)
For PACER's information on parties and their attorneys, see: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73432914/parties/pa-education-association-v-united-states-department-of-education/
Howell, Beryl Alaine (District of Columbia)
Jr, Paul D (District of Columbia)
See docket on RECAP: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/73432914/pa-education-association-v-united-states-department-of-education/
Last updated June 21, 2026, 3:08 a.m.
State / Territory:
Case Type(s):
Special Collection(s):
Trump Administration 2.0: Challenges to the Government
Key Dates
Filing Date: June 3, 2026
Case Details
Other Dockets:
District of District of Columbia 1:26-cv-01941
Case Summary of PA Education Association v. United States Department of Education, Civil Rights Litig. Clearinghouse, https://clearinghouse.net/case/48208/ (last updated 6/14/2026).