INDIANAPOLIS—Almost 900,000 Hoosiers have student loan debt, according to information compiled by BestColleges.

President Joe Biden announced earlier this year his plan to forgive federal student loan debt, and for the hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers and millions of Americans with student loans to pay off, there are implications based on race, gender and economic status that could come into play—if the program can pass legal muster.

In an article compiling data, BestColleges lists Indiana as having 899,200 student loan borrowers—calculated as 13.2% of the state’s population. That is tied with Kentucky for the 16th-highest percent in the nation, putting it behind two border states, Ohio (15.1%) and Michigan (13.9%), but ahead of Illinois (12.8%).

Zooming out to a national view, 43 million Americans have federal student loans, down slightly from 2021, but still a 4.7 million jump from 10 years ago.

Nineteen million borrowers have between $10,000 and $40,000 in federal student loan debt. Around three-fourths of all borrowers are borrowing up to $40,000.

Based on “bachelor’s recipients who borrowed student loans in 2015-16,” 70.3% of white recipients borrowed while 86.4% of Black recipients and 67.3% of Hispanic or Latino recipients did.

Women are more likely than men to have student loan debt, according to BestColleges.

Currently entangled in disputes over whether a president can constitutionally forgive student loan debt through executive order, the debt forgiveness is no sure thing.

While there are questions regarding who could have legal standing to challenge the program’s constitutionality, a federal court has also paused the plan through a preliminary injunction coming out of a lawsuit from six states.

If courts do ultimately strike down Biden’s program, Congressional Democrats may attempt to take up the issue.

Penn Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, looked at how loan forgiveness would map out on household income.

According to the school’s budget model from August, those in the top 40% of household income will be overrepresented in having their loans forgiven versus those in the bottom 40%.

In March, prior to Biden’s announcement, The Hill published an article titled, “How student loan debt became a crisis.” It argues the increase in student loan debt is explained by “rising tuition costs and increased federal loan availability—further exacerbated by corresponding wage stagnation.”

The Hill said “the cost of college has doubled in the past two decades and is growing each year by 6.8%,” citing The Education Data Initiative.

The Education Data Initiative also shows state-by-state breakdowns for in-state public university costs. Indiana, with the average tuition and fees costing $9,656, sits very close to the national average of $9,375. Indiana ($20,572) is cheaper than the national average ($21,337) when it comes to tuition and room and board.

FOOTNOTE:  Jack Sells is a reporter at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students