Americans are largely divided on whether they approve of how President Biden is handling the issue of student loan debt, according to a new poll.
The poll results, released Tuesday from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Research Center, found that 30 percent of Americans strongly approve of Biden’s handling of student loan debt. On the other hand, 40% said they strongly disapproved.
The survey also found that those currently facing student debt were much more likely to consider government financial relief. About 54 percent of those who are still paying student loans now say they would consider debt relief, while just 31 percent of those who have already paid off their loans said the same.
Survey participants were divided along partisan lines on the importance of student loan forgiveness. About 58% of Democrats said it was an important issue, while 44% of independents and 15% of Republicans said the same, according to the poll.
Americans were also more likely to support student loan forgiveness if the borrower was defrauded or misled by the school, made on-time payments for at least 20 years and accrued more interest than they initially borrowed, the survey found.
Biden made student loan forgiveness a key part of his administration, even after the Supreme Court shot down its first plan to resolve the problem last year. He announced a new student loan forgiveness plan in April that, if accepted, would help millions of borrowers.
The new plan focuses primarily on borrowers with “excessive interest,” or those who owe more money than they did at the start of repayment.
The poll also found that Democrats are more likely than independents or Republicans to support debt forgiveness due to runaway interest rates, with 62 percent of Democrats approving, compared to 37 percent of independents and 27 percent of Republicans. .
The survey was carried out among 1,309 adults between May 16 and 21 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
