Long Thompson Touts Education Plan

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(INDIANAPOLIS) - Both major-party candidates for governor are now proposing an expansion of Indiana’s college-scholarship program to cover middle-income families. But they disagree on how to pay for it.

Last month, Governor Daniels proposed leasing the Hoosier Lottery to raise money to guarantee students the equivalent of full tuition at Ivy Tech -- they could use the money at another Indiana school instead.

Now Democrat Jill Long Thompson is setting the same goal. But she'd pay for it by prodding Hoosier businesses and community groups to set up nonprofit corporations to raise the money. Thompson says a similar plan in Philadelphia has sent 250 kids to college, while New York and Los Angeles have raised millions for city schools.

Thompson has frequently bashed what she calls Daniels' "obsession with privatization," and contends the lottery plan would siphon money away from other needs.

Thompson's also proposing giving students the option of taking five years to finish high school instead of four. She says family pressures or part-time jobs make it hard for some students to finish high school successfully in four years.

Giving them an extra year would cost an estimated 10-thousand dollars per student, but Thompson says right now, those students are dropping out and costing even more, through social programs and prison costs. She notes they're also diminishing their earning power, which means less tax money for the state.

Thompson says her goal is to bring the dropout rate to zero in five years. She's proposing a more flexible high school curriculum allowing college-bound students to start earning college credit, while other students pursue vocational education.

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