Maryland will offer zero-interest loans to nursing students under a new $3 million fund announced Thursday by Gov. Wes Moore and the national nonprofit Social Finance, aimed at addressing a shortage of roughly 7,000 open nursing positions statewide.
The Maryland Pay It Forward Fund combines $2 million from the state’s Talent Innovation Fund with $1 million in philanthropic funding from Blue Meridian Partners, a group that pools donor money to scale programs aimed at economic mobility. The fund will support students pursuing Associate Degrees in Nursing, a two-year credential that leads to registered nurse licensure and can serve as a stepping stone toward a four-year nursing degree. State officials expect the fund to help about 80 students in its first year.
Moore said nurses serve as the state’s front-line defense, describing them as central to “providing affordable, accessible and quality healthcare.” Maryland Department of Labor Secretary Portia Wu said the fund exists because “cost shouldn’t stand in the way of talented Marylanders who want to become nurses,” and is meant to cover both tuition and everyday expenses so students can finish their programs.
The fund offers two kinds of support. Tuition gap loans will cover up to $5,000 in remaining costs after other scholarships and financial aid are applied. Living expense loans will cover up to $500 a month — as much as $12,000 over a two-year program — for costs like transportation, child care and housing that often derail students before they finish. Recipients won’t have to start repaying either loan until they’re earning more than $50,000 a year after completing their program, and the loans carry no interest.
Nursing has faced years of strain nationally and in Maryland, driven in part by an aging population and high turnover among current nurses. A Comptroller’s office analysis earlier this year found registered nursing had more open positions than any other healthcare occupation in the state, with an average of 9,000 unique openings a month against roughly 1,800 new hires.
Inez Stewart, a member of the Governor’s Workforce Development Board and chief human resources officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said she’s “seen firsthand how financial pressure keeps talented, capable people from completing nursing degrees.” Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian said the initiative reflects a broader idea that “Maryland is investing in the people its healthcare system depends on,” pairing the zero-interest loans with living expense support to address multiple barriers at once.
The program will launch as a pilot in the 2026-2027 academic year at the Community College of Baltimore County, the first Maryland community college to participate. CCBC President Sandra Kurtinitis said students with the ability to succeed in nursing too often “face financial challenges” that get in the way of finishing their degree, and that the fund is designed to let them focus on their coursework instead.
The fund adds to other state efforts aimed at the nursing pipeline, including licensed practical nurse apprenticeships and health occupation training through EARN Maryland, which has provided nearly $7.5 million for training certified nursing assistants, patient care technicians and similar roles under the Moore-Miller administration. The Pay It Forward Fund was developed by a working group that included representatives from the Governor’s Executive Office, the Governor’s Workforce Development Board, the Maryland Department of Labor, the Governor’s Office for Children, the Maryland Department of Health and the Maryland Higher Education Commission.