Dive Brief:
- Almost half of Americans, 47%, support the Biden administration’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 annually, according to a new USA Today/Ipsos poll.
- Almost 2 in 5 people, 39%, support a more extensive forgiveness plan — erasing all student loan debt for people under the same income cap.
- Both plans were much more popular among those with student loan debt. Some 83% supported Biden's plan and 75% supported erasing all debt for those earning less than $125,000.
Dive Insight:
Republican lawmakers immediately resisted President Joe Biden's plan to enact wide-sweeping student loan forgiveness, announced in August. The conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the legality of the proposal later this year, and its Republican challengers in the Senate are weighing alternative options to kill it before then.
Although public support for the forgiveness is split, only about one-third of respondents, 35%, supported Supreme Court intervention to overturn the plan.
Researchers polled a nationally representative sample of 1,029 adults online from April 14 to 16.
One issue Americans did agree on was college affordability, the poll found.
A majority of Americans, 70%, agreed the government should make college affordability a priority for current and future students. Among student loan holders, 52% agreed.
One affordability proposal found strong support — free community college. Almost 2 in 3 Americans supported tuition-free community college paid for by the federal government.
