Trump’s law is crushing the next generation of RFK Jr. disciples

Schools that educate medical contrarians like the health secretary are about to face a massive cut in federal funding.

Upcoming federal student loan limits in Trump's megabill will favor doctors and dentists over alternative medicine practitioners. | AFP via Getty Images

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it his Make America Healthy Again mission to challenge the medical establishment. President Donald Trump’s signature law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, could entrench it.

Kennedy sees America’s medical schools as bastions of groupthink that ignore the root causes of disease. But newly proposed caps on student loans that stem from the law would favor establishment institutions over nontraditional schools aligned with Kennedy’s view that Americans are sicker than ever because of what they eat, the chemicals they’re exposed to, and how little exercise they get.

The contrarians, including nontraditional schools that train naturopathic physicians and herbalists, are making a last ditch pitch to keep the federal funds flowing. But they are finding Kennedy’s desire to punch holes in the medical establishment is running up against the Education Department, which must find cost savings to pay for tax cuts under the Republican law. The department says unlimited loans enable schools to raise tuition and saddle students with debts they can’t pay back.

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