The Kaufman Foundation, a Kansas City, Mo.-based charity promoting small business, has announced that it will provide grants of up to $5 million to as many as seven U.S. universities that make entrepreneurship education available campuswide.
Fifteen schools, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin, were awarded $50,000 grants last month to assist in the development of a proposal that is to be presented to the foundation in December.
“We hope to effect nothing less than a cultural transformation,” said Carl Schramm, president and chief executive of the foundation. “We want all students–not just those enrolled in business or engineering schools–to have access to the skills, orientation and networks that lead to greater opportunities for them and result in more jobs, innovation and prosperity for America.”
The effort is based on the belief that entrepreneurship is the lifeblood of the American economy and that colleges offer an opportunity for reaching the country’s future innovators and leaders who will invent, create jobs and fuel economic development, according to the foundation.
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More than 1,500 colleges and universities now offer some form of entrepreneurship training, a trend that began in the 1980s.
SBA publishes resource lists
In an effort to help small businesses take advantage of the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act, the U.S. Small Business Administration, in cooperation with the Office of Management and Budget, has developed a list of resources and a contact within each federal agency assigned to providing assistance.
The information is on the Web site of the national SBA ombudsman, which is part of the SBA Web site (www.sba.gov).
“More and more we are finding federal regulatory agencies switching from a `gotcha’ attitude to a `let-me-help-you’ point of view,” said Michael Barrera, the SBA ombudsman. “This is not only good government, it is good business.”
Association backs health accounts
The National Small Business Association added its weight to those backing the addition of Health Savings Accounts included as an addendum to Medicare reform plans adopted last week by the House and Senate.
Under the change sent last week to a House-Senate conference committee, the current Medical Savings Account, to be renamed Health Savings Account, would be made permanent and expanded to allow participants to roll over unused funds, rather than lose the money.
The association argued that expansion of the medical savings account plan could result in a reduction of the more than 40 million uninsured Americans.