INDIANAPOLIS | The Democratic candidate for Indiana governor wants to steer more students to college, even if it means they first spend an extra year in high school.

Jill Long Thompson, who is seeking to unseat Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, unveiled an education platform Wednesday that would make a fifth year of high school a standard option for those who want more time to juggle after-school jobs or advanced placement courses. Students and their parents would settle on a high school plan in sixth grade.

"I believe it would increase the high school graduation rate," Long Thompson said.

Indiana currently has a 76.5 percent four-year high school graduation rate. Long Thompson said she would shoot for a 100 percent five-year graduation rate, but she didn't explain how she would erase the state's 12 percent dropout rate or get diplomas to the 1 percent of students who now earn special education certificates.

Another aspect of the Argos Democrat's education plan would create regional private foundations to raise money to expand the income-based eligibility for Indiana's 21st Century Scholars Program. The program currently provides about $2,500 a year in financial aid to college students whose families earn up to nearly double the federal poverty line, or $39,220 for a family of four.

Long Thompson didn't say how high the private dollars might raise the income threshold. But she insisted her plan is better than the GOP governor's push to lease the Hoosier Lottery and spend the proceeds on college scholarships.

"I think it's a good sound bite," Long Thompson said of Daniels' plan. "It sounds good, but it won't work."

Daniels says a lottery lease would generate at least $1 billion, which could support three decades of scholarships. His plan would provide $6,000 -- enough to cover two years tuition at Ivy Tech Community College -- to high school graduates from families earning less than $60,000 a year.