Voters Who Haven't Gone to College Also Want Student Loans Forgiven: Poll

A new poll found that some voters who didn't attend college also want student loan forgiveness. President Joe Biden is considering some relief to over 43 million Americans who still have student loan payments but is yet to settle on how, or even whether, to eliminate the debt.

The Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and Data for Progress released a poll Thursday, that asked 1,110 likely voters between April 30 and May 3 about "what actions the federal government should take on student loan debt?"

Twenty-three percent of respondents who didn't go to college said the federal government should eliminate all student loan debt for every borrower. Meanwhile, 34 percent said that "some" debt should be eliminated for every borrower, and 34 percent said that any student loan debt shouldn't be eliminated at all.

Though Biden has not confirmed a final plan on how to deal with student loan forgiveness, White House Press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday hinted there might be a $125,000 cutoff proposal that would offer relief to millions of student loan borrowers, and also bolster the Democrats' chances ahead of the midterm elections in the fall.

The survey also revealed of those who went to college, 24 percent said the federal government should eliminate all student loan debt for everyone, while 39 percent said that some debt should be forgiven for every borrower, and 32 percent said that none of the debt should be canceled.

"If President Biden fails to act, the consequences for American families will be dire, as more than half of all likely voters expect to make major changes to saving or spending when the current pause on student loan payments expires at the end of August," SBPC said in an emailed statement to Newsweek.

The poll also found that if no "strong" federal action was taken against student loan debts, the majority of Democrat-leaning voters who are older than 45 and those who graduated college might feel "less financially secure."

"One-in-five likely voters and almost a quarter of political independents expect their credit card debt to increase; and roughly 40 percent of all likely voters expect to save less for short-term emergencies, long-term goals such as retirement or child's college tuition and spend less on basic necessities like food and housing," SBPC said.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a hearing Thursday morning to examine student loan servicers and their impact on workers.

SBPC Executive Director Mike Pierce is expected to testify during the hearing and plans to ask the president to respond to "ongoing student debt distress."

"Everywhere from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to Washington, D.C. students and their families have been transformed into dollar signs on a balance sheet, as the promise of broad prosperity is packaged and sold in the pursuit of private profit. The well-documented, widespread abuses of federal student loan servicers, private creditors, and even the U.S. Department of Education should serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers," Pierce said in the SBPC statement.

"Canceling student debt is just, it is equitable, it is legal, and it is the only appropriate response to decades of government mismanagement and widespread industry abuses," Pierce added.

Immediate debt forgiveness was granted to around 40,000 student loan borrowers last month after the Department of Education revised parts of income-driven repayment programs.

The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program aims to cancel debts of government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying loan payments.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said at the time that the loans "were never meant to be a life sentence."