This bill tasks the Small Business Administration with encouraging entrepreneurship and inventorship education in community learning centers and after‑school programs by mobilizing SCORE volunteers and related SBA networks. It directs the agency to design a curriculum for volunteers, promote partnerships with community centers, and work with education and business stakeholders to reach children who are underrepresented in entrepreneurship.
The measure frames the effort as an economic and equity intervention — exposing disadvantaged and underrepresented youth to mentorship and practical skills to increase future entrepreneurship rates. For professionals who run youth programming, small‑business assistance centers, or volunteer networks, the bill creates a new federally endorsed channel for after‑school entrepreneurship activities that will require coordination across agencies and local partners.
At a Glance
What It Does
Directs the SBA Administrator to develop a volunteer curriculum and a strategy to pair SCORE volunteers with community learning centers to teach entrepreneurship and inventorship to underrepresented students. Encourages collaboration with SBA’s other entrepreneurial programs and external education and business groups.
Who It Affects
SCORE volunteers and chapter leadership, community learning centers operating under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, SBA program offices (e.g., SBDCs, women’s business centers), and underrepresented student populations who would be targeted for outreach.
Why It Matters
Creates a targeted federal push to embed entrepreneurship exposure into after‑school settings, leveraging volunteer mentors rather than creating a large new grant program; it also adjusts statutory language to make entrepreneurship an explicit allowable activity for community learning centers.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill makes entrepreneurship and inventorship education a task for the Small Business Administration by directing the Administrator to create a curriculum that volunteers can use in community learning centers. Rather than prescribing classroom hours or testing regimes, it frames the Administrator’s role as curriculum developer and partnership catalyst: design learning material, shape a strategy for local connections, and consult experts and organizations with experience serving underrepresented children.
Implementation leans on volunteer mentorship. The law encourages SCORE chapters to adopt the curriculum and partner with community learning centers to deliver sessions.
It asks the SBA to coordinate across its existing entrepreneurial ecosystem so the volunteers can draw on technical assistance and referral pathways rather than operate in isolation. The emphasis is on practical exposure — mentoring, ideation, and basic invention concepts — rather than formal credentialing.The bill also builds basic accountability into the program.
It requires periodic reporting to congressional small‑business committees that documents partnerships, training and guidance to chapter leaders on fund use, barriers encountered in outreach, and estimates of student reach. That reporting obligation is intended to let Congress and SBA leadership track where volunteer efforts are concentrated and how effectively underrepresented students are reached.Finally, the measure authorizes modest federal funding to support these activities and explicitly allows the agency to move funds to SCORE chapters to execute the program.
The statutory text amends existing authorities so entrepreneurship education becomes an explicit allowable activity for community learning centers and ties SCORE’s statutory mission to this new work, which clarifies legal authority for volunteers and chapters to engage in the fieldwork called for by the curriculum.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The curriculum the SBA must develop expressly targets female students, minority students, English learners, children with disabilities, students from rural areas, and low‑income students.
The bill encourages SCORE volunteers to collaborate with SBA programs and other agencies, including small business development centers, women’s business centers, Minority Business Development Agency centers, and entities connected to the Growth Accelerator Fund.
It amends the SCORE statutory language to add authority for SCORE to carry out entrepreneurship and inventorship programs under the Act.
It amends Part B of title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to list entrepreneurship and inventorship programs among allowable activities for community learning centers.
Congress authorizes $2,500,000 per year for fiscal years 2026–2030 for the statute’s activities, allows the SBA to transfer amounts to SCORE to implement the work, and requires a report to the relevant congressional small‑business committees within one year of enactment and every two years thereafter documenting partnerships, fund use, training provided to chapter leadership, estimated students reached, barriers, and improvement plans.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Designates the bill as the '21st Century Entrepreneurship Act.' This provision is purely titular but signals the legislative intent to modernize youth access to entrepreneurship education.
Findings
Lists Congress’s rationale: entrepreneurship drives jobs and growth, entrepreneurship rates have declined, underrepresented children are less likely to pursue entrepreneurship, and mentorship increases the odds of future entrepreneurial activity. These findings function as interpretive guidance for implementing agencies and prioritize disadvantaged communities.
Definitions
Defines key terms used throughout the bill: 'Administration/Administrator' (SBA), 'community learning center' (the ESEA Part B definition), 'inventorship' (creating or designing a new product or service), 'SCORE program' (Service Corps of Retired Executives), and 'small business development center.' These definitions limit the program to existing statutory categories and volunteer networks rather than creating new federal entities.
Curriculum and partnership strategy
Requires the Administrator to develop a SCORE‑volunteer curriculum aimed specifically at children who are underrepresented in entrepreneurship and to implement a strategy encouraging SCORE‑community learning center partnerships. It also requires collaborative curriculum development with education specialists, entrepreneurship and business groups, and organizations experienced with underrepresented youth — a design intended to make the materials age‑appropriate and culturally responsive.
Interagency and statutory alignment
Encourages SCORE volunteers to partner with SBA’s other delivery channels (SBDCs, women’s business centers) and agencies like the Minority Business Development Agency, and it amends the existing SCORE statute to add carrying out programs under this Act to SCORE’s activities. It also amends ESEA Part B to add entrepreneurship and inventorship programs to the list of allowable activities for community learning centers, integrating the initiative into existing federal after‑school funding structures.
Reporting and funding
Mandates a report to the Senate and House small‑business committees within one year of enactment and biennially thereafter, requiring the Administrator to list SCORE–community learning center partnerships, document fund use and procurement adherence, describe training provided to SCORE chapter leadership on fund use, estimate student reach, identify barriers, and outline improvement plans. Authorizes modest appropriations over a five‑year window and allows the Administrator to transfer funds to SCORE to execute the program, providing a funding mechanism while keeping the program relatively small scale.
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Who Benefits
- Underrepresented students in community learning centers — the curriculum and outreach expressly target girls, minorities, English learners, children with disabilities, rural students, and low‑income youth, increasing their exposure to entrepreneurship and inventorship concepts.
- SCORE volunteers and chapters — receive federally developed curriculum, an explicit statutory mandate to engage in youth programming, and potential access to transferred funds to support outreach and materials.
- Small business assistance ecosystem (SBDCs, women’s business centers, MBDA) — gains structured referral opportunities and a pipeline of youth engaged in entrepreneurship who could later use their services.
- Community learning centers — obtain a new, authorized activity to offer that aligns with workforce and economic development goals and may receive support through partnerships with SBA networks.
- Policymakers and analysts — obtain mandated reporting that will generate data on partnerships, reach, and barriers, improving oversight and program refinement.
Who Bears the Cost
- Small Business Administration — must staff curriculum development, coordination, reporting, and oversight functions, which creates administrative workload even with the modest authorization.
- SCORE chapters and volunteers — expected to deliver programming and manage partnerships; chapter leaders will need training on fund use and procurement rules and may need to reallocate volunteer capacity.
- Community learning centers and local program operators — must integrate new programming into after‑school schedules, coordinate with volunteer mentors, and potentially handle logistical or supervision burdens without guaranteed local funding.
- Congress/federal budget — the authorization establishes a multi‑year appropriation demand ($2.5M/year for five years), which draws on discretionary spending priorities.
- Local schools or districts — may face indirect costs (space, staff coordination, background checks) when facilitating volunteer‑led entrepreneurship activities.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is balancing scale and quality: the bill aims to expand equitable access to entrepreneurship exposure quickly by mobilizing volunteer networks and limited federal funds, but that approach risks uneven program quality, inconsistent reach across communities, and administrative friction when small volunteer chapters must meet federal procurement and reporting expectations.
The bill rests on volunteer delivery and modest federal resources, which raises practical implementation challenges. Relying on SCORE volunteers keeps costs down and leverages private experience, but volunteer availability and variable chapter capacity will produce uneven geographic coverage.
The mandated curriculum and reporting provide structure, but the statute does not prescribe quality metrics, minimum contact hours, or outcomes to measure long‑term impact — leaving significant discretion to the SBA and local actors.
Legal and procurement questions are also unresolved. The statute requires documentation of adherence to contract award and procurement procedures when SCORE uses funds, but it leaves open how SCORE chapters — many of which are volunteer led and locally chartered — will comply with federal procurement standards when receiving transferred funds.
That could require new internal controls or create bottlenecks for small chapters. Finally, integrating entrepreneurship into community learning centers competes with other after‑school priorities; centers with constrained staffing may struggle to run additional specialized programming without supplementary local support.
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