Education Secretary Miguel Cardona urged patience as the administration tackles its next steps on student-loan debt relief, a signature initiative of President Joe Biden’s, saying officials were dealing with a system that is broken.

“We are cleaning up a big mess,” Cardona said in an interview on Bloomberg Television with David Westin on Friday. “We’re improving the system so that we’re not in the situation where students are left with a lot of debt and low income.”

Biden has taken unprecedented steps to help relive student debt, but polls show some young voters believe his efforts have fallen short.

“Let’s keep in mind this debt forgiveness work that that we’re doing is a result of not only the pandemic but we had over a million people going into default every year,” Cardona said. “We’re working on fixing a broken system.”

Cardona said about 60% of borrowers have resumed making payments - a figure that is down from pre-Covid levels of about 70%.

A forgiveness plan estimated to cost $400 billion that would have erased up to $20,000 in debt for qualified borrowers was struck down by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. The administration has made changes to existing loan programs to bring borrowers nearly $132 billion in relief even as it vows to offer a replacement plan.

The “Plan B” in the works though is expected to offer much narrower relief than the initial proposal which would have helped 40 million Americans, and will likely impact specific groups such as borrowers with balances exceeding their original principal debt or those who attended unaccredited schools or for-profit colleges that misled students.

Biden made student-debt forgiveness a pillar of his 2020 campaign but despite the administration’s steps, polls show key parts of his electoral coalition, including Black voters and young people, are dissatisfied with his progress on the issue.

A December Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found 43%, a plurality, of Gen Z voters - those born in 1997 or later - say Biden is not doing enough to address the burden of loan payments. A majority of that group, 57%, though say they approve of the relief the administration has already provided.

Much of the loan forgiveness has gone to middle-aged borrowers leaving younger voters skeptical of Biden’s approach.

Cardona has said a replacement plan would be released this year but the initial draft proposal has already drawn criticism from some Democrats including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren, who urged Cardona to leverage his authority “to its fullest extent, maximizing relief for the greatest number of borrowers.”

The secretary said the Education Department is also working to improve the Free Application for Federal Student Aid system, to expand access to higher education.

With assistance from David Westin.

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