Americans support student loan forgiveness.

But new polling suggests they would rather rein in college costs.

View this email online June 19, 2022 It's Father's Day and Juneteenth. Both are good reasons to fire up the grill and celebrate the day. This week, we looked at new polling on student loan forgiveness and a push to overhaul campus assault. Plus, some good news for some student loan borrowers. Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images Happy Sunday, As President Biden inches toward an announcement on federal student loan forgiveness, a new NPR/Ipsos poll has found slightly more than half of Americans support what has been reported to be Biden's likeliest path: forgiving up to $10,000 per person. But an overwhelming majority – including a majority of those with student loans – said the government should prioritize making college more affordable over forgiving existing student loans. The nationally representative poll of 1,022 Americans was conducted between June 3 and 5, and included an oversample of more than 400 student loan borrowers. The margin of error is +/- 3.3 percentage points for all respondents and +/- 4.8 percentage points for those with student loans. Here's what we learned. There's general support for some debt cancellation A majority of the general public (55%) supports forgiving up to $10,000 of a person's federal student loan debt. But the more generous the relief, the more that support narrows. Forty-seven percent of all respondents said they support forgiving up to $50,000 in debt, while 41% expressed support for wiping the slate completely clean for all borrowers. Support for debt relief was, not surprisingly, far higher among borrowers themselves. "One thing that comes through really clearly with this poll is that those closest to the issue, people that currently hold student loan debt, are in a very different position from the American public as a whole," says Mallory Newall of Ipsos. Eighty-four percent of borrowers supported $10,000 of relief, 78% backed a jump to $50,000 and still two-thirds (68%) supported forgiving all student loan debt. Support was far weaker among respondents without student loans: Half supported $10,000 of relief, and just 37% supported full debt cancellation. The Biden administration has also hinted it might exclude high-income borrowers from relief – those who earn more than $150,000 a year or couples who earn more than $300,000. But when asked about income limits, poll respondents' views about debt relief didn't budge. Don't leave out grad school borrowers The Biden administration has floated the possibility of forgiving only undergraduate debt, based on the assumption that a borrower with a graduate degree is in a better position to pay off their debts. But according to this new survey, Americans don't see a meaningful difference. Sixty-five percent of all respondents agreed: If the government forgives some student loan debt, it should be for any type of education, whether that's undergraduate or graduate. Just 30% said, if the government is going to forgive debt, it should only be for undergraduates. Erasing old debts vs. fixing the system In one of the poll's most unexpected findings, respondents were asked to choose which sentence they agreed with more: "The government should prioritize making college more affordable for current and future students" "The government should prioritize forgiving some debt for those with existing student loans" A whopping 82% said the government's priority should be making college more affordable for current and future students. Just 16% believed forgiving student debts should take priority. "What that tells me is that, while student loan forgiveness for some is seen as a good proposal and a short-term fix, where we actually need to go from here is true, systematic change," Newall says. The other surprise is that respondents with student loans felt similarly. Fifty-nine percent of respondents with student loans said the government should focus first on fixing the system, while 41% said the government should prioritize debt cancellation. "If I had to pick one for me, today: Forgive student loans," says Briana Ford, 27, of Columbia, S.C. She has roughly $50,000 in student loan debts from college and is now earning a graduate degree. Ford says she has tried, at every turn, to pay for her education without relying on loans, but she's incredibly frustrated with the high cost of college and worries that a generation of students are taking on loans they cannot afford because they see no other viable path into the middle-class. That's why, even though Ford wants Biden to prioritize forgiving the debts of past borrowers, she says the federal government must also do something to help future borrowers. "I acknowledge that just forgiving student loans without addressing the problem is like draining a tub without turning off the faucet," Ford says, but "in reality it isn't an either-or. Political leaders actually can do two things."   This could be a key fissure in the student debt debate as President Biden's most ambitious efforts to remake the system moving forward remain unfulfilled, including his pitches to make community college free and to double the Pell Grant for low-income college students. The general public seems to understand what economists have been worrying over for months: That a move to erase student debts without a plan to help future borrowers will simply lead to a new mountain of debt for a new generation of student debtors – and quickly. In fact, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that "outstanding debt would return to its current level in 2027 for $10,000 of forgiveness, in 2034 for $50,000 of forgiveness, and in 2039 for full cancellation." Read more here.   — Cory Turner, Correspondent, NPR Ed — Sequoia Carrillo, Assistant Editor, NPR Ed Now, let’s get into some news…  Student loan borrowers get a rare win as the Senate approves a fix. The Senate has approved a proposal that would allow borrowers stuck with student loan debt linked to a spouse or ex-spouse to separate those loans. For many, it could also open a path to having their loans erased as part of a federal loan-forgiveness program. If approved by the House and signed by President Biden, the legislation would close a loophole created in the 1990s that allowed married couples to consolidate their student loans for a lower interest rate. Congress shuttered the program in 2006, but never passed a way to separate the loans. Read more here. — Sequoia Carrillo, Assistant Editor, NPR Ed Newsletter continues after sponsor message Critics say campus sex assault rules fall short and need an overhaul. Heralded as a game-changer for female college athletes, Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sexual discrimination in education, also is supposed to protect sexual assault and harassment accusers, giving them options like changing dormitories or even getting their attackers removed from the school. In practice, the law's protections fall short, accusers and advocates say. Polarizing regulations finalized under former President Donald Trump have discouraged students from coming forward with abuse allegations. Those who do face a live hearing and cross-examination by a person of their alleged attacker's choosing. The rules also narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and allowed colleges to ignore most cases arising off campus. President Joe Biden and other critics say the rules, finalized in 2020 by then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, fail to adequately protect sexual assault victims, deter them from reporting misconduct and go too far in shielding the accused. Biden is expected to announce new rules as soon as this month. Read more here. — The Associated Press Students in Alaska drank floor sealant believing it was milk, school district says. Students at an elementary school in Alaska complained on Tuesday morning about bad-tasting milk that burned their mouths and throats. Staff quickly realized the students had accidentally been served floor sealant. A dozen students at Sitʼ Eeti Shaanáx̱ Glacier Valley Elementary School in Juneau ingested the floor sealant during breakfast, according to the Juneau School District. One child was treated at Bartlett Regional Hospital, and two others were picked up from the school and may have sought medical attention. Read more here. — Dustin Jones, Digital News Reporter And before you go, have you tried chasing bats? New from our science podcast, Short Wave: Cylita Guy was a curious child who enjoyed exploring the beaches, parks and animals that shared her hometown of Toronto, Canada. She's an urban ecologist interested in city-dwelling bats. Cylita talks to guest host Lauren Sommer about the importance of studying wildlife in cities and about her children's book, Chasing Bats and Tracking Rats: Urban Ecology, Community Science and How We Share Our Cities. Listen to Short Wave here. See you next week. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WMFE (edit station). What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: npred@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! 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