New Poll Shows Split Opinions on Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Efforts

Americans are divided on President Biden’s efforts to enact student loan forgiveness, according to a new survey released this week. The poll was conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Biden’s campaign promises and achievements

In the 2020 campaign, Biden promised widespread student loan forgiveness to ease the debt burdens of millions of borrowers. In many ways, Biden has arguably delivered — at least for some. Through a series of targeted efforts, the administration has canceled upwards of $167 billion in student loans for nearly 5 million Americans, including $7.7 billion announced just last month.

“The Biden-Harris Administration remains persistent about our efforts to bring student debt relief to millions more across the country, and this announcement proves it,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in a statement in May. “One out of every 10 federal student loan borrowers” has been approved for student loan forgiveness, he said. 

Supreme Court setback and public dissatisfaction

Despite this unprecedented relief, the Supreme Court struck down Biden’s signature one-time debt relief plan, which would have eliminated up to $20,000 in student debt for most borrowers. 

With that program blocked, a sizable portion of borrowers suggested in the poll that they were dissatisfied with Biden’s efforts to cancel student debt, while many others appear to oppose student loan forgiveness on principle. 

The Biden administration plans to release a new debt relief plan later this year, but it will likely also face legal challenges.

Breakdown of Biden’s $167 billion in student loan forgiveness so far

Despite the loss at the Supreme Court, the Biden administration has still found some success with its so-called “targeted” student loan forgiveness approach. Through a combination of executive actions and regulatory reforms, the administration has managed to relax rules and expand access to existing loan forgiveness programs while establishing new relief pathways. 

According to the Education Department, the administration has approved unprecedented levels of student loan forgiveness:

• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): $68 billion forgiven for over 942,000 borrowers through regulatory reforms and temporary “waivers.” 
• IDR waiver: $51 billion forgiven for more than 1 million borrowers through a temporary initiative that can accelerate borrowers’ progress toward 20- and 25-year loan forgiveness under income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.
• SAVE plan: $5.5 billion forgiven for 414,000 borrowers under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, a new IDR plan created by the Biden administration that lowers payments, eliminates runaway balance growth due to interest accrual and allows for “early” loan forgiveness for borrowers with smaller debt balances.
• Borrower Defense Repayment and Closed School Discharge programs: $28.7 billion forgiven for at least 1.6 million borrowers who were harmed by school misconduct or closure. This includes class members covered by the Sweet v. Cardona settlement. 
• Total and Permanent Disability (TPD): $14.1 billion in discharges for more than 548,000 borrowers due to reforms and regulatory changes.

Much of the relief is ongoing. The Biden administration is still processing loan forgiveness for eligible borrowers through PSLF and IDR, as well as TPD Discharges. Batches of borrowers approved for early loan forgiveness under the SAVE plan are announced every two to three months.

Poll shows mixed opinions on Biden’s student loan forgiveness

Despite the administration’s efforts, the total amount of relief is still a fraction of what borrowers would have received had Biden’s initial debt relief plan been allowed to proceed. America remains deeply divided over the results, even among current student loan borrowers.

According to the AP-NORC survey released this week, 30% of U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” approve of Biden’s student loan forgiveness efforts, and 40% strongly or somewhat disapprove. The remaining 30% either had no opinion or stated they did not have strong feelings either way.

Student loan borrower approval of Biden’s forgiveness efforts

Even among student loan borrowers, the numbers suggest deep divisions. A plurality of borrowers — 36% — strongly or somewhat approve of Biden’s loan forgiveness efforts. But even 34% of current borrowers disapprove. 

The survey did not make clear how many of those borrowers disapprove because they think Biden has gone too far versus not done enough.

Political party support for Biden’s student loan forgiveness

Democrats were far more likely to approve of Biden’s student debt initiatives overall, with 55% of Democratic respondents saying they supported his loan forgiveness efforts. Only 18% of independents and 9% of Republicans expressed approval. 

Support for relief efforts for older student loans and defrauded borrowers

Respondents were more supportive of efforts to provide relief to borrowers with much older student loans, with nearly 70% expressing support. There was also fairly strong support for providing relief to borrowers who were defrauded by their schools, with 56% of respondents expressing support for such efforts. 

Biden’s latest student loan forgiveness plan likely to face challenges 

The Biden administration is preparing to roll out a new student loan forgiveness plan. It’s billed as a “Plan B” to the program that the Supreme Court struck down last June. This new plan aims to provide similarly sweeping relief but will focus on specific groups of borrowers. 

Targeted relief efforts

Unlike the initial plan, which proposed blanket cancellation of $10,000 to $20,000 for most borrowers below certain income thresholds, the new plan offers complete discharges in certain cases, but only if borrowers qualify under the new program’s rules.

According to draft regulations that the Education Department released earlier this year, the new plan targets:

• Borrowers with significant interest accrual or capitalization.
• Borrowers who first entered repayment before July 2005 or July 2000. 
• Borrowers eligible for existing loan forgiveness programs but have yet to enroll or apply.
• Borrowers from institutions that lost federal aid eligibility due to poor student outcomes. 
• Borrowers facing significant financial hardships.

Implementation and expected challenges

The new plan should be released this fall, but most observers expect legal challenges. Administration officials hope that by using a different statutory authority and going through a lengthy negotiated rulemaking process involving multiple rounds of public hearings and stakeholder input, the program will be on firmer legal footing than Biden’s first attempt at mass student debt cancellation. 

But given the nation’s deep partisan divides and current Supreme Court jurisprudence, it’s uncertain whether any broad-based loan forgiveness plan can withstand legal scrutiny without express, unequivocal authorization by Congress — a scenario unlikely in the current political climate.