The Tuesday, May 29, 2007 editorial titled “New entrepreneurs wanted” struck the nail on
the head regarding the downturn of new business startups in Ohio. In April I announced my entrepreneurial education blueprint for the Toledo Public Schools as a way to begin to
address this problem through a unique partnership with the local business/entrepreneurial
community. We must create more opportunities for our students to become exposed to
entrepreneurship and small business principles and the public schools would be a way to
do this.
This plan includes:
1. Expanded entrepreneurship and business education course offerings to complement the
courses the district currently offers.
2. Establishment of a Regional Growth Partnership type program in the Toledo Public
Schools to give students hands-on business creation and development.
3. Establishment of a business academy to allow the students who wish to learn more to
pursue further education.
4. Establishment of a business advisory council to review district curriculum and provide
ideas on how to make the district’s curriculum more relevant to the business and job
environment that will greet our students upon graduation.
Our students will have many great ideas. The future will belong to the great ideas that
are put into production and the more that the district and the community can do to
nurture this, the better off our students and the local area will be. I will work hard to
bring these groups to the table to hash out the issues and come up with a plan to
implement these ideas as well as benchmarks for implementation. Through grants, local
business and community support, as well as sponsorships, we can make this work. You can learn more about the plan on my Web site at: http://myersforschoolboard.com/bee
