Students in 18 Appalachian Kentucky counties to get education in entrepreneurship

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear announced Wednesday a new project to start entrepreneurial instruction in elementary and middle schools in 18 of the state's Appalachian counties. The initiative will be funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Governor's Office of Agriculture Policy, which spends the 50 percent of the state's tobacco-settlement money that is dedicated to agriculture.

The selected schools are mainly in two areas: Bath, Carter, Elliott, Lawrence, Lewis, Menifee, Morgan, Robertson and Wolfe counties in northeastern Kentucky, and Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Hart, McCreary, Monroe, Russell and Wayne counties in the south-central part of the state. Clay County, in the southeast, is also included. By some measurements it is the state's poorest county.

The Kentucky Entrepreneurial Coaches Institute in the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky, will head the program. "The opportunity for students to learn effective business skills from an early age will have a major impact on their future development as the community leaders of tomorrow," Beshear said in a news release. The Institute, created with tobacco-settlement money four years ago, piloted entrepreneur education at St. Patrick's School sixth grade in Maysville, Ky., during the 2008-09 school year. (Read more)