Baton Rouge Business Leaders Invest in the Future of Our Youth

AIE would like to officially thank the following Baton Rouge Business Leaders for serving on the Lunch Committee of the 2010 Annual Business & Industry Leaders’ Lunch, presented by the Istrouma Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America on Thursday, August 5, 2010:

John Fabre, Committee Chair

Acura Infiniti of Baton Rouge

Steve Toups

Turner Industries

Camm Morton

Ashby Hospitality

Craig Netterville

IBERIABANK

Beau Olinde

Olinde’s Furniture & Appliances

Sanford Roy

Merrill Lynch

John Holmes

Holmes Building Materials

Leonard Sullivan

We would also like to recognize Governor Bobby Jindal for serving as the keynote speaker of the luncheon.  It was very encouraging to see so many business and industry leaders invest in the youth of our children.

AIE’s aim is to bridge the educational community and the business community with the LSU College of Business to infuse entrepreneurship in education.  We know the entrepreneurs in our community want to provide opportunities for potential leadership for the youth in our community which is in line with our

4 tenets of our leadership program:

1.   Autonomy

2.  Accountability

3.  Distributed Leadership

4.  Social Enterprise

It is obvious that the leaders of this luncheon embrace innovation in the lives of our youth.  Thank you for connecting with our youth and supporting their potential leadership. 

This display of support from the business community makes me wonder why educational leaders won’t do the same thing. 

At this luncheon, where were the leaders in the business of education?  

Kristy Hebert, Ph.D.

CEO
Advance Innovative Education

8768 Quarters Lake Road

Building 11, Suite 5

Baton Rouge, LA  70809
225.922.9123 (office)

225.612.6978 (fax)

www.advanceie.org

Incentivizing investment in education reform

With billions of dollars going to fund R&D in clean technology -- and hundreds of millions of dollars coming from the US Department of Energy, why can't the US Department of Education follow their lead?

Innovation often comes from the private sector IN PARTNERSHIP with the public sector. One example that comes to mind is the Internet -- a publicly incubated idea that was transformed for social good, commerce, entertainment, etc. thanks to entrepreneurial investments.

Unfortunately, the education sector including many well-intentioned education reformers overlook the value of private capital in the education space. Just check out the National Journal's expert blog question this week. The responses are a sure sign that many in education (and education reform) are missing the point -- innovation flows from incentivized investments by private, public and philanthropic sources.