Milwaukee City Wire

John Della Volpe, director of polling at Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, is championing President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan as one that could pay dividends for the administration.

Volpe, who worked as a consultant on Biden’s election campaign, recently said that the move “adds an additional tailwind to an already improving position with young people,” WEAU.com reported. 

Biden made his decision official earlier this month, formally announcing the forgiveness of up to $10,000 for each student’s debt, prompting supporters of the president to point to how it fulfills a campaign promise he made while still a candidate for office. The payment freeze has also been extended to Aug. 31.

Since the president’s actions, the floodgate of criticisms has swung open far and wide, including from some Democrats, who argue he pledged to go even further while still on the campaign trail.  

At the same time, Republicans are blasting the move as being patently unfair to other taxpayers who now find themselves saddled with paying off the debts of others.

Still, with more than 43 million Americans now saddled with some level of federal student debt and the president’s approval ratings sharply in reverse, Volpe is selling the move as being about "trust in politics, in government, in our system,” and “it’s also about trust in the individual, which in this case is President Biden.”

A deeper analysis of Biden’s plan, which the Republican National Committee has labeled a “handout to the rich” by further handcuffing lower-income taxpayers, calls for an income cap limiting the forgiveness to only those earning less than $125,000 a year.

In Wisconsin, Biden’s actions come on the heels of University of Wisconsin System President Jay Rothman's announcement of a tuition assistance program for all UW campuses.

The UW program paves the way for students whose households earn less than $62,000 a year to be eligible for last-dollar funding that could make their entire tuition bill free for all four years of a bachelor's program.