DAYTON — A new poll shows that more than half of Americans want the Biden administration to forgive up to $10,000 of a person’s federal student loan.
But some think this could do more harm than good.
S’Huan Huguley just graduated from the University of Dayton last month, with $17,000 in school loans.
He will start paying them later this year.
He said he feels the pressure of paying it back along with trying to make insurance and car payments.
Kisha Johnson said she also feels the burden.
Her children are in college and are accumulating debt.
“Not only just them, I had to stick out loans also for them so yes it’s really hard and I’m a single parent also,” Johnson said.
Both said they appreciate the Biden Administration’s efforts to focus on some sort of student loan forgiveness.
>> Official: Biden decision on student-loan forgiveness unlikely until later in summer
An NPR/Ipsos Poll released Friday shows 55 percent of Americans support forgiving up to $10,000 of a person’s federal student.
The poll sampled more than 1,000 American adults and included an oversample of student loan holders.
Cedarville University Economics Professor Jeff Haymond said in a sense there is no such thing as forcing debt, rather it’s transferred.
“The U.S. government has spent the money because we have made the loans, guaranteed the loans, so we will have to pay this back, it will just be added directly to the national debt, if it’s allowed to go through,” Haymond said.
He thinks transferring student loan debt will make college more expensive in the coming years.
“Prospective future students are going to rightfully hope that ‘some of my debt’ might be paid off, I can afford to go to college other than I would. It’s going to drive up costs,” he said.
That’s something he doesn’t want to see happen.
“I’ve had friends that went to college and all they talked about is their student debt and how they were going to pay it off and trying to get grants to help with it, so I looked at it and was like well I don’t want that,” Bradon Murphy, who did not attend college, said.
The poll also asked people to choose between the government prioritizing forgiving some student loan debt or making college more affordable, 82 percent said they preferred making it more affordable.
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