Matt Michaud is a recently retired clinical social worker from Maine who worked primarily with children and families, practicing in education and private practice.

I’ve watched and listened closely as details of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are now finding the light of day. Apparently our U.S. Department of Education is redefining its list of professional career paths, delineating what careers should be considered professional or non-professional, resulting in a downgrade for available financial assistance as some Americans prepare for their respective careers.

Some very key professional career fields have been omitted from this list. (The beneficial purpose for Maine or our country in making this change escapes me.)

A number of the newly non-listed professions of course provide crucial services and support for millions of Americans across all state lines and political affiliations, and across all cultural, socioeconomic, age and gender groups. In some cases, practitioners in these professions literally and figuratively hold people’s lives in their hands.

I wish this was fake news. In reality, the future implications of this targeted decision will not only make it more challenging for students who choose to enter these costly higher-education programs (medical, mental health, finance, education fields), but also for the patients, learners, children and families who seek unique skills and knowledge from these highly trained and licensed professions.

Access to these professions will be hurt in the long term by reduced numbers of Mainers and Americans who choose to pursue these careers, because potential nurses, PAs, PTs, teachers, etc. will begin to shy away from the financial toll of paying for the skyrocketing cost of their specialized education without adequate assistance from the DOE.

These careers, previously and rightly so considered professional, become professional when passion for a specialized field meets an opportunity for higher education and unique training. It is the children, adults and families across Maine and all states who grow, heal, learn and thrive in our society as a result of interacting with these professions who ultimately will be harmed by their diminishment.

Again, the beneficial “why” of this thinking escapes me. This topic is also personal to me. According to the professions not included in this list:

• My 40-year career as a trained and licensed clinical social worker assisting children and families in Maine was not professional, nor was my wife’s 40-year career as a trained and licensed RN pediatric nurse, also here in Maine.
• My daughter, who currently saves high-risk heart patients daily as an RN in Boston, and is pursuing a master’s degree, is not professional. 
• A sister and niece (licensed and trained MSWs), who have administered major state and      community-based mental health programs in New Hampshire, are not professional. 
• A nephew, fresh out of college, is beginning a career path as a physician’s assistant. His current training, and the training he hopes to receive, should certainly qualify him as professional, right?
• The hundreds of highly qualified, trained and certified teachers and allied health/mental health educational staff I have known in my career, serving and educating our children here in Maine, are not professional.
• And finally, my father Neil Michaud (USN, MSW, LCSW, ACSW, KSG), who rose from abject poverty through WWII Navy service and higher education, coming from his beloved Aroostook County (ironically in Susan Collins’ hometown of Caribou — the same Susan Collins who voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) to become founding director of Catholic Charities, which currently saves lives and serves thousands of Maine people and families of any age, background, faith or walk of life from Kittery to Fort Kent, was apparently not … professional.

         Really?