President Joe Biden has recommitted to canceling student loan debt, easing financial pressure placed on members of a key voting demographic before next year's election.
Biden's $39 billion action, announced Friday, provides 804,000 federal student loan borrowers with relief after the Department of Education reviewed its income-driven repayment plans. The move comes before the Federal Reserve is anticipated to raise interest rates this month and before federal student loan debt repayments, paused during the pandemic, resume in October, putting more pressure on household budgets as many voters criticize the president's handling of the economy.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ANNOUNCES $39 BILLION IN STUDENT DEBT RELIEF
Biden’s student loan debt cancellation action will expand the economy and provide more Americans the security and peace of mind of a middle-class life, according to Colin Seeberger, senior adviser at the Center for American Progress.
"By proactively identifying hundreds of thousands of student borrowers who are legally eligible for debt cancellation because they have made between 20 and 25 years of payments on their loans, the administration is helping Americans save more of their hard-earned money," Seeberger told the Washington Examiner. "The move shows that this administration is committed to ensuring Americans have more control over their finances and can live with less stress.”
The Education Department's announcement, which comes after the Supreme Court last month blocked Biden's $400 billion proposal canceling up to $20,000 each for 43 million eligible federal student loan borrowers, addresses "historical failures in the administration of the federal student loan program in which qualifying payments made under IDR plans that should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness were not accounted for," according to the department. As mentioned by Seeberger, eligible borrowers are those who have made 240 or 300 qualifying monthly installments.
"I have long said that college should be a ticket to the middle class — not a burden that weighs down on families for decades," Biden said. "Republican lawmakers — who had no problem with the government forgiving millions of dollars of their own business loans — have tried everything they can to stop me from providing relief to hardworking Americans. ... The hypocrisy is stunning, and the disregard for working- and middle-class families is outrageous."
“By fixing past administrative failures, we are ensuring everyone gets the forgiveness they deserve, just as we have done for public servants, students who were cheated by their colleges, and borrowers with permanent disabilities, including veterans," Education Secretary Miguel Cardona added. "This administration will not stop fighting to level the playing field in higher education."
Overall, Biden has now delivered more than $116.6 billion in federal student loan debt cancellation for more than 3.4 million borrowers, but policy and politics often coincide.
2020 election census data revealed college-educated voters represented 42% of the electorate, an increase from 40% in 2016, 37% in 2012, and 34% in 2008. Biden outperformed former President Donald Trump with the demographic, 61%-37%, and 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton against Trump by four percentage points, 57%-36%, according to Pew Research Center.
At the same time, polling published this month by IBD/TIPP finds Biden's support among college-educated voters has diminished to 48%-42% in July, from 52%-40% in June and 55%-37% in May. Biden's average wider approval is 42%-53%, according to RealClearPolitics.
To that end, Vice President Kamala Harris promoted the Education Department's announcement Friday. Harris described reducing student loan debt as a career "priority" by citing her tenure as California's attorney general, during which she challenged allegedly predatory for-profit colleges and secured $1 billion for defrauded veterans and students.
"We will not stop there," she said of the announcement. "Last month, President Biden announced we are pursuing an alternative path to provide relief through the Higher Education Act, and we finalized our new income-driven repayment plan — which will cut monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans."
"Our administration will continue to fight to make sure Americans can access high-quality post-secondary education without taking on the burden of unmanageable student loan debt," she added.
However, as ABC News/Ipsos polling emerges after the Supreme Court's student loan debt decision that suggests 45% of the public agrees with the Biden v. Nebraska 6-3 ruling, the Biden administration is also reaching out to non-college-educated voters given the president's own working-class background. Despite Biden's Scranton, Pennsylvania, roots, Trump won non-college-educated voters in 2020 by 8 points, 53%-45%.
Nevertheless, first lady Jill Biden appeared at the National Governors Association annual conference in New Jersey Friday. There, she underscored her continued work as a community college professor and her husband's broader education policy of encouraging other pathways for students — an appeal to blue-collar voters with whom Democrats have connected less with since former President Barack Obama and the backlash against so-called coastal elites.
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"The Biden Education Pathway starts with free, high-quality universal preschool and creates a high school experience that prepares students for their next steps," the first lady said. "It provides two years of affordable community college and opens up avenues to a four-year degree."
"This is Bidenomics — how we grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out," she added.