Indiana’s making progress toward getting more students into college and job training, but new data shows the state still has significant work to do to help Black and Latino Hoosiers.
The report, released Jan. 30 by Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, found 54% of Indiana adults aged 25-64 had a postsecondary credential or degree in 2023.
While up slightly from the previous year, Indiana continues to lag behind the national average of 55%. In 2012, the state set a goal to reach 60% attainment by 2025.
In Marion County, just 43% of adults had at least an associate degree in 2023, lagging far behind wealthier suburban counties like Hamilton, where 72% of adults have a degree.
And while Indiana’s seen success in boosting certificate completion, the state struggles with degree attainment — in 2023, just 42% of Indiana adults had at least a two-year degree.
In 2023, the Commission for Higher Education implemented the HOPE agenda, which aims to get Indiana to the top ten nationwide by 2030 in a number of categories, including college going and attainment rates.
But for Indiana to reach its goal, the state will need to invest in communities of color. In Indiana, about 32% of Black residents and 28% of Hispanic residents had at least an associate degree in 2023. That’s compared with 43% of their white peers, per Lumina data.
“When I look at the data in Indiana, it is pretty clear who’s not being served,” said Courtney Brown, Lumina’s vice president for impact and planning, “who is not getting that opportunity to access and succeed in higher education.”
Closing the gap
Though the percentage of Black and Latino adults with degrees has increased since 2009 — when Lumina began tracking data — the gaps between these groups and white Hoosiers have remained relatively stagnant.
That’s because Black and Latino communities are more likely to face challenges due to historical inequities.
“They’re more likely to be in rural communities or disadvantaged urban communities where they don’t have the best K-12 school systems,” said Brown. “The higher ed system isn’t serving them well right now.”
Lumina and Gallup released a survey of Black college students in 2023, which found that Black students face discrimination and barriers to higher education.
According to the survey, 22% of Black bachelor’s degree students who responded were full-time caregivers and 20% worked full time. Overall, Black students were twice as likely to have responsibilities outside college than their white peers.
A 2024 report, also from Gallup and Lumina, found 40% of Black students and 42% of Latino students had considered dropping out of college, in contrast to about a third of white students.
While support initiatives for Black and Latino students are essential to helping close this gap, that could prove difficult given the current political climate.
President Donald Trump’s administration recently cut DEI initiatives and staff and announced plans to investigate over 100 colleges’ DEI practices, including Indiana University and Purdue University.
In Indiana, a protest recently erupted when Gov. Mike Braun did not include funding for Martin University, Indiana’s only predominantly Black college, in his first budget proposal.
As a private school, Martin does not traditionally receive state funding, but received a one-time $5 million grant in 2023. Braun’s proposed budget also did not fund a grant program designed to support first-generation and minority students in college, which also received $5 million in the last budget cycle.
“If we are serious about educating more Hoosiers and having more Hoosiers have the skills, knowledge and abilities to get jobs,” Brown said, “then we have to focus on increasing that for everybody.”
Editor’s note: Mirror Indy is part of the nonprofit Free Press Indiana, which has received financial support from Lumina Foundation.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire at claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org or on Instagram/X/Bluesky @clairerafford.
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