The GOP-backed budget bill signed into law this summer touched on every corner of American society.
When it came to higher education, the bill altered the limits and allowable uses for federal financial aid, the way university endowments are taxed and even took a crack at the return on investment for students choosing a college.
But education officials in Wyoming say it’s still too early to gauge the true effect of all the changes to higher ed included in the act.
"This is so new, the feds have to do guidance on all of this," said Laurel Ballard, the incoming executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission. "All of this is still waiting for the federal guidance."
Pell Grants
The bill makes a few changes to the rules around Pell Grants, which are federal subsidies for low-income students.
The new law opens them up – for the first time – to students in workforce training programs, a potential boon for the eight two-year public colleges around the state.
"Because they do a ton of workforce training programs," Ballard said. "They work with the industry and employers in their regions, in their local communities, and figure out what they need."
The bill also blocks students with full-ride scholarships from using Pell Grants. That means as students stack scholarships and assistance to cover tuition, fees and living expenses, the Pell will move from the "first in" to the "last used," Ballard said.
That might be a bigger change for financial aid offices than for students.
"I don't think it necessarily will remove opportunities for students,” she said. "If they are awarded the Pell, they'll still receive it if they don't have other ways of covering the cost of college."
Earnings accountability test
The bill could also hurt those same colleges.
A new so-called accountability rule could impact students using federal financial aid at Wyoming colleges. It would block the use of federal aid for degree tracks that fail to produce high-earning graduates. Specifically, that aid could only be used on a program if its graduates tend to make more than their peers with high school diplomas.
College graduates do tend to make more, but Ballard said the new provision could affect fields where graduates tend to make less than the average college grad.
"I think we're trying to figure out exactly what the impact of that will be," she said. "We have quite a few students that do General Studies. And we also know fields like social work just don't pay very much. [Or] if you go into early childhood education, it's just a career sector that doesn't pay a whole lot."
A publicly available online dashboard shows average earnings for graduates of the community colleges and UW outpace those of their peers with only high school diplomas. But the dashboard only breaks down earnings by sector and the new rule will likely look specifically at individual programs.
UW Spokesman Chad Baldwin said it's too early to tell what that will mean for university programs, though he noted most should be safe.
"For Wyoming students that graduated with a bachelor's degree between 2019-2021, their median income is around $43,000 a year after receiving a bachelor’s degree," Baldwin said via email. "Unless the information for high school graduates can be broken down more specifically by occupational area, it is hard to tell if some of UW's programs will be at risk."
Borrowing limits
At UW, students might be shielded from some of the bill’s other changes. For example, a new cap on graduate student borrowing is unlikely to affect most UW students, who tend to borrow less than the new limit of $20,500.
"However, the cap applies to the total borrowing available toward the full cost of attendance," Baldwin said. "For many students, this means that while tuition and fees may be covered within the cap, additional borrowing may be needed to meet other components of a student’s cost of attendance, such as food, housing, and personal expenses."
Baldwin said the full impact is "difficult to forecast" given the "critical role federal financial aid plays in ensuring access to professional education at UW."
"Students without sufficient personal resources or institutional aid may be most affected, as they would need to turn to alternative loans once federal limits are reached," he said. "Much will depend on student borrowing behaviors and enrollment decisions once the changes take effect. UW will continue to monitor closely and provide financial counseling and support so students understand their options and can plan accordingly."
In the academic year 2024-2025, 13% of graduate students and 58% of professional students, which includes those seeking law, nursing and education degrees, used some form of federal loans to pay for schooling, according to figures provided by Baldwin.
Endowment tax
The budget bill also seeks to raise taxes on some university endowments. But Toby Marlatt, a spokesperson for the UW Foundation, said Wyoming has little to fear.
"The University of Wyoming Foundation continually monitors federal policy changes, including the recent adjustments to the endowment tax contained in the Big Beautiful Bill," he said in a statement. "The endowment tax applies to certain private institutions with large per-student endowments, generally exceeding $500,000 per enrolled student. UW's endowment per student is below that threshold, so we do not expect the change to have a direct impact."
UW's endowment is under $900 million. Its student headcount hovers around 10,000 to 11,000. Using figures from the previous academic year, UW's endowment is less than $80,000 per student.
The GOP budget bill also included an opt-in federal school voucher program. Gov. Mark Gordon is weighing whether Wyoming will join it.
