Democrat, Republican students want government help with loans: Poll

(NewsNation) — There’s a lot of bipartisan support among younger people for having the government help them pay off their student loans, a new Axios survey by The Harris Poll published Thursday found.

Axios writes that with older adults, party identification tends to dictate how people feel about government assistance on student debt, yet this gap “all but disappears” when students at undergraduate, graduate and professional institutions are asked.

About 89% of Democratic students and 81% of Republicans said the government should offer some relief.

Meanwhile, in the general population, 76% of Democrats, 62% of independents and 47% of Republicans say the same.

President Joe Biden tried to cancel up to  $20,000 for around 43 million people who made under $125,000, but the Supreme Court ruled he overstepped his authority, leading the president to ask the Education Department to craft a new plan.

Since then, there’s been some loan forgiveness programs rolled out, albeit on a smaller scale — but polls indicate it hasn’t been enough for some younger voters. A Bloomberg poll shows 43% of those in Gen Z (typically thought to be those born in 1997 or later) don’t think Biden is doing enough to ease people’s burdens on student loan payments.

“Biden’s popular student loan program was struck down, but the genie is out of the bottle,” Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema told Axios. “… In courting young voters, taking things away is not usually a good campaign strategy.”

There were 4,168 U.S. adults, 643 of which were students, polled as part of the Axios Vibes survey.

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