I
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 4175
To promote youth entrepreneurship education and training.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 25, 1998
Mr. KUCINICH (for himself, Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. ROMERO-
BARCELO´, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York, Mr.
LATOURETTE, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania, Mr. HILL-
IARD, Ms. WOOLSEY, Ms. CARSON, Ms. CHRISTIAN-GREEN, Mr. FORD,
Mr. NADLER, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. FROST, Ms. LOFGREN,
and Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To promote youth entrepreneurship education and training.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Future Entrepreneurs
of America Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) In order to reach their career goals in our
dynamic American economy, young people need to
take personal responsibility to obtain the skills,
knowledge, constructive attitudes, and experiences
that will enable them to function as creative, self-
confident participants in the workforce.
(2) Research has found that 69 percent of high
school students are interested in starting their own
businesses and 85 percent of high school students
wish their schools would do more to teach them
about entrepreneurship and starting a business.
(3) States have begun to express increased in-
terest in entrepreneurship education and training.
State educational leaders are recognizing that self-
employment is a viable career option for young peo-
ple and are exploring ways to better prepare them
to own and operate their own businesses.
(4) As part of a lifelong learning process, entre-
preneurship education and training helps teach
young people about the economy, helps increase their
motivation to learn, helps develop in them a sense of
individual opportunity, enhances their personal
growth, helps them develop an appreciation of the
importance of innovation, helps develop their prob-
lem-solving and leadership skills, helps them learn to
manage their finances, and helps develop in them
the sort of optimistic outlook and self-reliant atti-
tudes that will benefit them for their entire working
lives.
(5) The entrepreneurs and inventors of tomor-
row are in our schools today. The entrepreneurial
spirit needs to be nurtured at all levels of our Na-
tion’s educational system beginning with students in
grades 7 through 12.
SEC. 3. STATE GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) AUTHORITY.—In any fiscal year in which the ap-
propriations 
under 
section 
9(a) 
equal 
or 
exceed
$50,000,000, the Secretary may make grants to States
from allocations under subsection (d) to enable them to
carry out entrepreneurship education and training pro-
grams for students in grades 7 through 12.
(b) AGENCY TO RECEIVE GRANT.—A grant to a
State under subsection (a) shall be made to the State edu-
cational agency, or to another agency designated to receive
the grant by the Governor of the State.
(c) STATE PLAN.—
(1) APPROVED
STATE
PLAN
REQUIRED.—No
State shall receive a grant under subsection (a) un-
less it has submitted to the Secretary a plan, which
the Secretary has approved.
(2) STATE PLAN CONTENTS.—The State plan
described in paragraph (1) shall include—
(A) descriptions of how the State will use
a grant; and
(B) descriptions of how the programs sup-
ported by a grant will—
(i) involve the business community;
and
(ii) be coordinated with other relevant
Federal, State, regional, and local pro-
grams.
(d) ALLOCATION OF FUNDS.—
(1) ALLOCATION FACTORS.—Except as other-
wise provided in paragraph (2), the Secretary shall
allocate the amounts available to carry out this sec-
tion pursuant to subsection (a) to each State accord-
ing to the relative populations in the States of stu-
dents in grades 7 through 12, as determined by the
Secretary based on the most recent satisfactory
data.
(2) MINIMUM
ALLOCATION.—From amounts
available to carry out this section pursuant to sub-
section (a), no State that has submitted under sub-
section (c) a plan that has been approved by the
Secretary shall be allocated an amount less than
$400,000 for a fiscal year.
(3) REALLOCATION.—In any fiscal year an allo-
cation under this subsection—
(A) for a State that has not submitted a
plan under subsection (c); or
(B) for a State whose plan submitted
under subsection (c) has been disapproved by
the Secretary.
shall be reallocated to the remaining States in ac-
cordance with paragraph (1).
(e) USE OF GRANT FUNDS.—
(1) REQUIRED USES.—A grant made to a State
under subsection (a) shall be used—
(A) to provide funds to local educational
agencies and public schools to carry out entre-
preneurship education and training programs
for students in grades 7 through 12; and
(B) to monitor and evaluate programs sup-
ported under subparagraph (A).
(2) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—
A State receiving a grant under subsection (a) may
use not more than 4 percent of the total amount of
the grant in each fiscal year for the administrative
costs of carrying out this section.
(f) REPORT TO THE SECRETARY.—Each agency re-
ceiving a grant as described in subsection (b) shall trans-
mit a report to the Secretary with respect to each fiscal
year for which a grant was received. The report shall de-
scribe the programs supported by the grant and the re-
sults of the State’s monitoring and evaluation of such pro-
grams.
SEC. 4. DIRECT FEDERAL GRANT PROGRAM.
In any fiscal year in which the appropriations under
section 9(a) do not equal or exceed $50,000,000, the Sec-
retary may make grants to local educational authorities
and public schools to provide entrepreneurship education
and training to students in grades 7 through 12.
SEC. 5. CLEARINGHOUSE.
(a) AUTHORITY.—The Secretary shall make a grant
or contract to establish, operate, and maintain a national
clearinghouse (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Clearing-
house’’) for instructional materials and information re-
garding exemplary entrepreneurship education and train-
ing programs and best practices.
(b) APPLICATION.—An entity desiring to establish,
operate, and maintain the Clearinghouse shall submit an
application to the Secretary at such time, in such manner,
and accompanied by such information, as the Secretary
may reasonably require.
(c) BASIS AND TERM.—The Secretary shall make the
grant or contract authorized by subsection (a) on a com-
petitive, merit basis for a term of 5 years.
(d) USE OF FUNDS.—The Clearinghouse shall use
the funds provided under a grant or contract made under
subsection (a)—
(1) to maintain a repository of instructional
materials and related information regarding entre-
preneurship education and training programs for
secondary schools, including middle schools, for use
by States, localities, and the general public;
(2) to disseminate to States, localities, and the
general public, through electronic and other means,
instructional materials and related information re-
garding entrepreneurship education and training
programs for secondary schools, including middle
schools; and
(3) to the extent that resources allow, to pro-
vide technical assistance to States, localities, and the
general public on the design, establishment, and im-
plementation of entrepreneurship education and
training programs for secondary schools, including
middle schools.
(e) CONSULTATION.—The Clearinghouse shall con-
sult with the Small Business Administration with respect
to its activities under subsection (d).
(f) SUBMISSION TO CLEARINGHOUSE.—Each Federal
agency or department that develops entrepreneurship edu-
cation and training programs or instructional materials
for such programs shall submit to the Clearinghouse infor-
mation on the programs and copies of the materials.
(g) APPLICATION OF COPYRIGHT LAWS.—In carrying
out this section the Clearinghouse shall ensure compliance
with title 17, United States Code.
SEC. 6. EVALUATION.
(a) PERFORMANCE MEASURES.—The Secretary shall
develop measures to evaluate the performance of programs
assisted under sections 3 and 4.
(b) EVALUATION
ACCORDING
TO
PERFORMANCE
MEASURES.—Applying the performance measures devel-
oped under subsection (a), the Secretary shall evaluate
programs assisted under sections 3 and 4—
(1) to judge their performance and effective-
ness;
(2) to identify which of the programs represent
the best practices of entities developing entrepre-
neurship education and training programs for stu-
dents in grades 7 through 12; and
(3) to identify which of the programs can be
replicated and used to provide technical assistance to
States, localities, and the general public.
SEC. 7. REPORT TO THE CONGRESS.
For each fiscal year for which there are appropria-
tions under section 9(a), the Secretary shall transmit a
report to the Congress describing the status of the imple-
mentation of this Act. The report shall include the results
of the evaluation required by section 6 and a description
of the programs supported under sections 3 and 4.
SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘entrepreneurship education and
training’’ means educational activities and experi-
ences, planned and supervised by qualified teachers,
that enable students to explore business ownership
opportunities, acquire the skills and knowledge nec-
essary to start a business, and develop a range of
entrepreneurial competencies that will help them to
explore and identify their lifelong career goals as
business owners or as competent employees;
(2) the term ‘‘local educational agency’’ has the
meaning given the term in section 14101(18) of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
(20 U.S.C. 8801(18));
(3) the term ‘‘qualified teachers’’ means teach-
ers who hold valid teaching certifications or are con-
sidered to be qualified by the State educational
agencies in the States in which they work;
(4) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of Education;
(5) the term ‘‘State’’ has the meaning given the
term in section 14101(27) of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C.
8801(27)); and
(6) the term ‘‘State educational agency’’ has
the meaning given the term in section 14101(28) of
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801(28)).
SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
(a) AUTHORIZATION.—For the purposes of carrying
out this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated
$60,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 1999 through
2004.
(b) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR CLEARINGHOUSE.—
The Secretary may use not less than 2 percent and not
more than 5 percent of amounts appropriated under sub-
section (a) for each fiscal year to carry out section 5.
(c) LIMITATION ON FUNDS FOR SECRETARY’S EVAL-
UATION.—The Secretary may use not more than $200,000
from the amounts appropriated under subsection (a) for
each fiscal year to carry out section 6.
(d) LIMITATION ON ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Ex-
cept as necessary to carry out section 6 using amounts
described in subsection (c), the Secretary shall use no por-
tion of the amounts appropriated under subsection (a) for
the costs of administering this Act.
(e) FUNDS FOR GRANTS.—For each fiscal year the
Secretary shall use all amounts appropriated under sub-
section (a), other than the amounts described in sub-
sections (b) and (c), only for grants under section 3 or
4.
Æ