The children in the classroom, which is housed in a one-story brick structure halfway between a strip mall and a soybean field, are learning how to protect a hospital network from ransomware. Ten years ago, this kind of scene would have seemed ridiculous. At least in Indiana, where a modest but extraordinarily ambitious experiment in high school cybersecurity education is beginning to draw attention from locations that don’t typically look this far inland, it now feels almost normal.
The Indiana Department of Education has partnered with the College Board, Project Lead The Way, Ivy Tech, the Indiana National Guard, the state Chamber of Commerce, and Eli Lilly, among others, in what officials are calling a first-of-its-kind partnership. Even though the execution won’t be simple, the pitch is. From a ninth-grade computer lab to a four-year degree, a National Guard cyber unit, or a paid job at one of the roughly twenty thousand open cybersecurity positions currently listed in the state’s hub, Indiana aims to create a single, fully aligned pipeline. Speaking with those involved gives the impression that they are not waiting for Washington to resolve this.
For now, the figures are low. Currently, cybersecurity courses are offered by about sixty-nine public high schools, reaching only about 562 students—basically nothing in a state the size of Indiana. Within three years, the goal is to increase that to 200 schools and about 4,000 students. It remains to be seen if they achieve those goals. Once the press release wears off, curriculum rollouts tend to stall, and rural districts in particular often struggle to find teachers who can actually teach this material rather than just supervise a textbook.
However, the structure is what makes Indiana’s endeavor truly intriguing. The majority of the nation’s cybersecurity education programs are bolt-ons, one elective nestled between study hall and health class. A student who enrolls in Project Lead The Way as a freshman can advance to AP Cybersecurity, obtain college credit at Ivy Tech, obtain an industry credential, and enter a paid internship before they ever toss a graduation cap because this course is being developed as a pathway. The CEO of the College Board, David Coleman, has referred to Indiana as a model for other states. He might be correct, but it’s important to keep in mind that College Board has a financial stake in the AP course’s success, which makes the cheerleading a little more difficult.
The demand side is more difficult to dispute. The frequency and audacity of cyberattacks against schools, hospitals, water utilities, and small towns have increased, and depending on whose survey you trust, there are more than 500,000 open positions nationwide. The initiative was presented by Governor Mike Braun as a homegrown talent strategy, and that framing is important. It indicates that Indiana is not attempting to import engineers in order to compete with Austin or Seattle. By viewing the classroom as the first link in an industrial chain, it is attempting to develop them in the same manner that it once developed machinists and auto workers.
As this develops, there’s a sense that Middle America’s perception of its role in the tech economy is changing. When you consider that Guard cyber units actually respond to attacks on small businesses and local governments, Major General Larry Muennich of the Indiana National Guard’s description of the students as future frontline defenders seems rhetorical. In this instance, the distinction between an AP exam in high school and an incident response shift in the real world is surprisingly thin.
It’s still unclear if Indiana can scale the model before the talent gap gets worse or if other states will act quickly enough to copy it. However, the Hoosier wager is unique in how serious it is. Larger tech ecosystem recruiters are already taking notice. That says something on its own.
