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Enrollment Opens For Purdue Polytechnic High School

Eric Weddle/Indiana Public Broadcasting

Purdue University officials joined Indianapolis school and city leaders Monday to launch a new STEM-focused charter high school set to open next year.

It’s a unique curriculum where graduates who meet Purdue's admission requirements will be a top choice for enrollment.

But as Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Eric Weddle reports, some worry the school could be a drain on the Indianapolis Public Schools District.

The Purdue Polytechnic High School will offer project-based learning centered in science, technology, engineering and math.

Students will also complete an internship and career tract before they graduate.

Purdue President Mitch Daniels says the intention is to get more inner-city students ready for college.  

This year only 26 Indianapolis Public Schools District students were admitted to Purdue –and only 12 of those selected made it to campus.

“We can not be the university we aspire to be or determine to be if we don’t do better than that in the single largest concentration of low-income and first generation students in our state,” Daniels says.

Purdue is partnering with the Indianapolis Public Schools District to run the school on the city’s East Side.

But not everyone supports it.  School board commissioner Gayle Cosby says the district is already expecting to close multiple high schools because there are too few students.

“I get, you know, the idea of competition but we are reaching a point where we are saturated with choice,” Cosby says.

Applications are now open to enroll 150 freshman at the school for the 2017-18 school year.

For more information and to apply, go online to pphsi.purdue.edu.

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