IEA president denounces U.S. Department of Education taking the “professional” designation away from teaching, other careers

Please attribute the following statement to IEA President Karl Goeke:

"The U.S. Department of Education has quietly removed the "professional" designation from careers like teaching, social work, nursing, and therapy. This should concern every educator, parent and community member. These are the very people who hold our classrooms, our students and our communities together. And now they're being labeled "non-professional."

"What this means is the federal government is limiting access to low-cost graduate student loans for these careers, forcing our educators, nurses and therapists to go to private lenders with higher interest rates and less transparency. Graduate degrees not only allow them to become better at their jobs, which has a direct impact on the quality of our students' education, but those degrees also allow for higher salaries and professional growth.

"All of this makes advancing in these professions harder and more expensive at a time when we're already facing severe teacher and education-professional shortages.

"Ultimately, this decision makes it much harder, especially for people in marginalized communities, to improve their practice or increase their compensation, forcing them to leave the classroom.

"Classifying teachers and others as non-professional diminishes their knowledge and hard work, as well as their dedication to their careers.

"It's also telling that many of these professions are female dominated. Nearly 80 percent of teachers are women. Nearly 90 percent of nurses are women. About 85 percent of social workers are women and 75 percent of therapists. This decision by the federal government disproportionately affects women's access to education and career advancement.

"Contact your congressional representatives and tell them to undo the damage they caused by creating these loan limits in H.R. 1, also known as the "so-called" big, beautiful bill, and restore the professional designation."

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The 135,000 member Illinois Education Association (IEA-NEA) is the state's largest union. IEA represents Pre K-12 teachers outside the city of Chicago and education support staff, higher education faculty, retired education employees and students preparing to become teachers, statewide.