When a flurry of graphics began circulating online claiming the U.S. Department of Education had “removed” entire fields of study from professional status, educator and creator Angel Carmell saw the panic spreading — and decided to intervene.
In a video now gaining traction on Instagram, Carmell told her followers to “stay loud” but focus on the real issue: not disappearing degrees, but the quiet dismantling of the Department of Education itself.
“Social media has all of y’all in a chokehold,” she says in the three‑minute clip. “Those posts are not accurate — but the truth is way more specific and way more serious.”
A Draft Rule, Not a Final Decision
Carmell breaks down what the Department of Education’s November 2025 draft actually proposes. The draft, required under a new student loan law, is meant to define which graduate programs count as professional degrees — and therefore qualify for higher federal loan limits starting Jan. 1, 2026.
According to the draft, eligible programs must:
- include all academic requirements to begin professional practice,
- require licensure or regulated entry,
- total six years of higher education,
- exist within specific approved classification codes.
The list currently includes medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatry, chiropractic, law, theology and clinical psychology.
Missing from the list — for now — are nursing, social work, public health, education, physical and occupational therapy, counseling, engineering, business, IT and architecture. Those programs were not removed or demoted, Carmell stresses, but simply not included in the draft, meaning they default to lower loan caps unless the final rule changes.
That technical distinction is why professional bodies in nursing, social work and other fields are loudly objecting. But the online graphics claiming degrees were being “eliminated” are inaccurate.
Your Degree Is Safe — the Department of Education Is Not
The point most people are missing, Carmell argues, is far more consequential.
“While we’re here fighting over fake graphics… the Department of Education is being dismantled in real time,” she warns.
She cites structural changes already underway:
- the department being split into two agencies,
- reduced budgets,
- vacant leadership roles,
- weakened enforcement mechanisms.
“Pay attention to the dismantling of the Department of Education because that’s the real threat,” she says. “Your degree is safe, sugars — but the Department of Education, they are absolutely trying to kill it.”
A Message Resonating Beyond Social Media
Carmell’s video taps into a broader anxiety among students, educators and professionals navigating rising tuition costs, federal loan changes and growing political disputes over education policy.
As associations and lawmakers push the Department of Education to expand the list of recognized professional degrees, Carmell is urging the public not to let the larger structural changes slip by unnoticed.
“Stay loud,” she repeats. “And don’t let them kill the Department of Education in silence.”
