Majority backs student loan debt relief: poll

The majority of Americans support the Biden administration’s new student debt relief initiative, according to a new The Economist-YouGov poll. 

The new poll, published Wednesday, found that 51 percent of respondents support student loan debt cancellation, while 39 percent oppose the initiative.

Eighty percent of respondents who owe student loans support the administration’s plan, while 50 percent of those polled who paid off their student loans disagree with it.

Forty-three percent of respondents who never had student loan debt also disagree with the loan forgiveness, according to the poll. 

Opinions were sharply divided by party.

Eighty percent of Democratic respondents support student loan debt cancellation, while 71 percent of Republicans opposed it. Independents were split, with 44 percent in favor and 42 percent opposed.

The poll comes a week after President Biden announced an initiative to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who make less than $125,000 annually and $20,000 for borrowers with Pell Grants, as well as an extension of the payment pause for at least four months. 

The new initiative, which is the largest forgiveness of student loans to date, has sparked criticisms on both sides. Many Republicans argue the initiative is unfair for borrowers who already paid off their loans or individuals who never took out student loans, while some Democrats have said the initiative doesn’t go far enough.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said that the administration’s loan forgiveness program is unfair to those who have paid off their loans, while 50 percent of respondents said the new initiative is unfair to those who never attended college. 

The Economist-YouGov poll was conducted from Aug. 28-30 with a total of 1,500 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 2.9 percentage points.