Americans Say Government Can Do More to Ease Student-Loan Crisis

A pair of polls suggest that student debt will be a key issue for millions of Americans this fall, when monthly bills resume and borrowers can’t lean on President Joe Biden’s forgiveness plan after the nation’s top court tossed it out.

About half of borrowers said the situation has become a national crisis, according to a poll released by Bankrate on Thursday. A similar share said the federal government has not done enough to provide financial assistance for those with student debt.

Millions of student-loan borrowers are preparing to resume paying back their debt at the end of this month, more than three years after mandatory payments were paused due to the pandemic. They will do so without help from Biden’s main relief program, which would have wiped out as much as $20,000 per borrower. The Supreme Court threw it out in June.

Overall, 56% of Americans believe the cost of higher education has gotten out of hand, with 44% saying that students aren’t educated enough about the financial implications of taking out loans to fund their studies, according to the poll conducted June 12-15 among 3,684 adults, 1,400 of whom have student debt.

“Americans may feel like their student loan debt is keeping them from getting their life started,” said Sarah Foster, an analyst at Bankrate.