North Carolina is a “purple” state and what voters here think about key issues is portentous. A recent poll conducted by an organization, the Civitas Institute, indicates that while some people understand the government’s role in causing the problem of excessive student debt, many still think that government has the solution.


In today’s Martin Center article, Shannon Watkins looks into the poll and finds a mess of thinking.

The good news is that a fairly large majority don’t favor proposals for the government to pay off student college debts. But an ever bigger majority believes student debt to be a “serious issue.”

A sizable percentage believes that federal lending practices have played a role in causing that issue, but many of them nevertheless favor Democrats, who are not the least bit inclined to rein in student lending. And the worst news in the poll is that a heavy majority of younger voters are captivated by the promises of “free college.”

Watkins concludes:

All in all, the poll results show that many North Carolinians seem to have an accurate grasp of the relationship between student debt, government subsidies, and the price of college. But, for any number of reasons, they support policies that will likely exacerbate the problem of increasing college costs. But shifting the debt from students to taxpayers isn’t really a solution at all.