Although President Joe Biden did not include a student debt cancellation provision in his proposed American Families Plan, he has said that he would support a move by Congress to cancel $10,000 per borrower, CNN reported. Biden has also directed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to write a memo on the president’s legal authorities that would enable Biden to take executive action to broadly forgive federal student loans.

                By                    Gabrielle Olya

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Biden’s student loan forgiveness proposals have faced critics on both sides of the aisle. Some leaders in the Democratic Party believe Biden isn’t going far enough, and are calling for the broad cancellation of $50,000 per borrower. Others have argued that attending college is a privilege and those who have loans are already in a higher socio-economic class to begin with, so student loan forgiveness is regressive.

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Other respondents believe that student loan forgiveness should only be granted in certain situations — 12% support loan forgiveness for those with low income and high debt, 11% support loan forgiveness for those in public service and 4% support temporary loan forgiveness through the pandemic.

On the other hand, 1 in 5 Americans does not believe that the federal government should undertake loan forgiveness.

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Older Americans Are Divided About Student Loan Forgiveness

This finding is particularly interesting given that student loan forgiveness would benefit older Americans the most. According to a recent CNBC report, more than 20% of the country’s outstanding student loan debt is held by people over the age of 50, with borrowers ages 62 and older still owing an average of $37,739.

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Last updated: June 17, 2021