Today, President Obama heads to the Big Apple to meet students at Brooklyn’s Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), where he will discuss the importance of preparing the next generation of workers and entrepreneurs.
He spoke about the buoyant three year-old Brooklyn institution in his last state of the union address.
“At schools like P-TECH in Brooklyn, collaboration between New York public schools and City University of New York and IBM, students will graduate with a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in computers or engineering. We need to give every American student opportunities like this,” the president said.
P-TECH opened in September of 2011 with a class of 104 students The school is now expected to grow to between 400-450 students by the start of the next academic year. The institution has corporate and college partnerships that provide training for students that enables them to pursue highly skilled jobs in the sciences, which the president says is essential to building a thriving middle class.
The president is also expected to discuss cuts to the country’s deficit, which has been reduced by half since 2009.