We, the people, recognize that an education in the principles of entrepreneurship and financial literacy are critical to a productive livelihood for America’s students and generations to come. We believe that our nation's economic crisis - in which far too many Americans lost jobs, homes and life savings - strongly reinforce the need to provide our students with these essential tools of entrepreneurship and financial literacy education. We believe that the quickening rate of America’s brain-drain is affecting our country’s ability to innovate on a mass scale- and reinforces the need for a revamp in our education system to include exposure to entrepreneurship education.  We believe that the projected GDP rates predicting America falling behind are alarming and we need to turn it around now.  Finally, we believe that those who graduate from high school will be better prepared for with an understanding of these principles and will be a at a significant advantage over those who do not.  

We request that the Federal Government, Department of Education, State Boards of Education, State Curriculum Boards, and other Education leaders launch E2 Entrepreneurship Education as required core curriculum in all public schools grades 4-12. It is time for bold action to reverse these negative statistics.

My name is Anthony Delmedico. I have been a serial entrepreneur since the age of 10. I am a military veteran, an author and today a CEO to several successful multi-million dollar companies that I started on my own. I am also a father to a 7-year-old girl. 

I launched the E2 Petition for Entrepreneurship Education because I am very concerned about the current K-12 education system provided to our kids, how prepared they are for the real world as young adults, our overall economy, and the future of America.

We are at a pivotal moment in the history of America:

- High nemployment and high inflation

- Record teen dropout rates (1.2 million teens drop out annually)

- High juvenile crime rates and young adult incarceration rates

- 2.4 million college graduates can’t find jobs in their fields of study

- College students are in debt up to their eyeballs

- Globalization continues to drive jobs overseas

- Corporate America and Wall Street greed

- K-12 schools failing to prepare students for the real world

Since the recession of 2008, there has been a new global war taking form.  If you were to query the billions that live on our planet what is the #1 thing they all want from their government leaders, the answer would be an economy that provided good jobs.  Everyone in the world wants a good job.  Today, the war for jobs around the globe has trumped all other leadership activities. If countries fail at creating jobs, their societies fall apart. Countries, and cities will experience suffering, chaos, and eventual revolution. This is the new world that leaders confront. This can be seen as much at city level as it is at the country level.   

So how do we create more jobs?

We create more Entrepreneurs in America. Let me repeat that, we create more Entrepreneurs in America. And they're sitting in our K-12 schools today.  When there aren't enough start-ups, or when too many small businesses (entrepreneurs) fail, job creation fails. And when job creation fails, a country fails. If you have an "undersupply" of Entrepreneurs in a country's population, we will then have an undersupply of jobs. So, the question is, how do we create entrepreneurs and more jobs so that we can sustain our GDP growth and sustain our global leadership position?

Creating a new generation of Entrepreneurs will spark new products, services, new technologies, entire new industries, new exports, vastly increasing the growth rate of our current GDP, and this will also create new types of jobs and opportunities for America.

Entrepreneurs are responsible for 75% of all new job creation in America.

We need to pave a way, a roadmap, in our K-12 public schools that creates hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of new entrepreneurs by 2020. We need a new curriculum that exposes them to the traits of Entrepreneurship, the option of Entrepreneurship, and the concept of Innovation. We need to create a massive synergy of entrepreneurship and invention on a grand scale, and we need to do it NOW.

  "If Entrepreneurship is the engine of our economy,  creates jobs and puts food on tables,  why wouldn't we place the same emphasis on it in our public schools as Math, English and Science?"- Anthony Delmedico

Positive Impact of E2 Entrepreneurship Education to our Youth 

E2 as core curriculum will reduce teen drop out rates, juvenile crime and incarceration rates, as well as create a pathway to success for young adults, regardless of a college degree.  We can change these numbers below, by providing a more engaging, hands-on alternative subject in K-12. 

·    By the end of today 3,287 students will drop out of high school. 

·    By the end of the year, 1.2 million teens will drop out.

·    That's one teen every 9 seconds.                            

·    75% of state prison inmates are high school dropouts.

·    81% of dropouts say they would have stayed in school if subject matter were more relevant to real life. 

·    7 out of 10 high school students want to start their own companies.

·    Less than 25% of high school students are offered a business or entrepreneurial course by the time they graduate.                                                                             

 Positive Impact of E2 Entrepreneurship Education to our Economy 

·    Entrepreneurs create 75% of all new jobs in our economy.

·    America needs to create a net 21 million new jobs by 2020 in order to return full employment.

·    While the nation’s unemployment wavers at 7%, it’s nearly 20% for young adults.  And in some cities across the country, it’s 40% depending on race.          

·    Today, 2.4 million college graduates can’t find jobs in their field of study. That's a whopping 80% of all college grads.          

·    54% of the Millenials (18-34 year olds) would like to start their own business. Only 11% of the Millenials plan on doing so in 2012.                                                                                                 

The next global leader (U.S, China or whomever) will be the country that understands that the future of global leadership is based on GDP and jobs, which are both determined by the number of engaging Entrepreneurs in their populations. The fate of a nation can be determined by the financial literacy and entrepreneurial energy of its youth.

E2 Call to Action for America!

1) We are requesting that government education leaders incorporate E2 Entrepreneurship Education into core curriculum in all public schools (grades 4 -12).

2) Once the E2 program is created, we need teachers that can quickly train and teach entrepreneurship nationwide.

3) Next, we need local small business leaders in the community to step up and contribute to the schools, not with money, but with their time, becoming positive mentors, role models and success stories for our nation's youth.

Together, school districts, the business community, and government will launch a new generation of Entrepreneurs across America, creating 21 million new jobs by the year 2020.

Launching E2 is a big, bold idea.  It will require strong leadership, but if executed by 2013, it will create millions of new jobs and even new industries by the year 2020.  E2 will put America back to work and make the American Dream achievable by everyone, regardless of income, background or socioeconomic status.

Please join me, sign the petition!

Please join me in urging our government and education leaders to integrate Entrepreneurship Education into our K-12 schools. Entrepreneurship education added as core curriculum will create more jobs,  create new generations of Innovators, thinkers, and doers that America needs to remain #1 in GDP; as well as generate financially literate citizens better equipped to make important life decisions.   

Learn more about E2 Entrepreneurship Education: www.e2petition.com

 

E2 Entrepreneurship Education Presented at the FEE Summit, Washington, D.C.

Click here to check out my video presenting the E2 Petition for Entrepreneurship Education at the Future of Entrepreneurship Education Summit in Washington, DC.