Polling & Research
Americans’ Attitudes on Education Debt – March 2023
Published on July 21, 2023
Global Strategy Group and Center Forward released a survey of 1,000 registered voters nationwide on Americans’ attitudes on education debt. The survey shows Republicans, Independents and Democrats overwhelmingly identify the burden of federal student loan debt as a major problem for the country and all want the government to do more to make higher education affordable. A majority of Americans also support capping the amount parents and graduate students can borrow through federal loan programs as an effective and necessary step toward addressing the student debt crisis.
The results of the survey show that addressing the burden of student debt is a bipartisan issue.
- Overall, 63% of respondents said that the federal government should be doing more to make college or continuing education more affordable for regular Americans.
- Colleges and universities get the most blame for the country’s student loan debt burden, but “the federal government” and “government policy-makers” are the next most responsible.
- Voters across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support caps on federal Grad and Parent PLUS loans, the only federal loan programs that don’t have loan caps.
- Favorability for uncapped loans falls and the preference for capping them increases as people learn more about them.
- View full survey results here and a summary here. Center Forward and GSG also completed surveys in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin with similar results.