Will Slashing Student Loans Mean More Youth at the Polls?
Democrats hope Biden’s student loan relief program will boost youth voting, but it will likely be just one of many issues voters of all ages will weigh in November
Government Responds to Student Loan Crisis With Billions in Debt Relief
Student loan crisis has been decades in the making
Students and graduates in the United States have been in a generational student loan crisis that presently ensnares about 40 million Americans in some $1.75 trillion of debt.
Since 1980, the inflation-adjusted cost of four-year public and private college has nearly tripled, but federal support has not kept up. Pell Grants used to cover about 80 percent of public college costs for students from working families. Today, they only cover a third, the White House , there was a sense that Biden had failed to live up to key campaign promises, including addressing racial bias in police departments, ending the pandemic, or overseeing an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Most of these commitments were either already too late to change, such as the chaotic and deadly end to the war in Afghanistan, or were held up in Congress, like policing reform.
All of this made it even more necessary for the White House to boost flagging support among key constituencies by showing it would follow through on its commitments.
In the month after announcing the debt relief plan, Biden saw his overall approval rating rise to 41%, according to a . The threat of this backslide makes it a particularly potent tool for motivating voters who disagree with the decision. (Here is our reproductive healthcare guide for college students trying to navigate the new environment.)
These overlapping polls show that while forgiving debt may have been a good political play, there’s no guarantee it will overshadow other issues such as reproductive rights and the economy. There’s also no guarantee that it will certainly lead to Democratic wins, as enthusiasm ratchets up on both sides.
However, overall polling as of end-September generally gives Democrats a stronger chance of favorable results in November than they had before the debt announcement. A lot can happen in the coming month, but so far at least, it seems that debt relief could be both good policy and good politics from the Democrats’ point of view.