Nearly a quarter-million Nebraskans have student loan debt, owing $7.7 billion to the federal government as of September 2020, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education.
Mike Baumgartner, executive director of the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, said the amount might be staggering to consider, but it's a tiny slice of a larger pie.
"That's a small part of the $1.5 trillion nationwide," Baumgartner told the Legislature's Revenue Committee on Thursday.