The Federal Grant Process has been Bushwhacked

About a month ago I received an email from my contact at Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) arm of the DOEd. A seemingly small rule change will have devastating impacts on innovation and small businesses in the U.S. They have redefined the term "small business" to include those companies with employees over 500 and bumped the revenue threshold to $500 million. The old standard is something like 50 employees and $10 million dollars.

I certainly had my disagreements with the Clinton Administration, but at least small business had a fighting chance. Now it would seem that the Wal-Mart model is being implemented throughout our economy and is supported by your tax dollar. For education, that means more Channel One and further conglomeration of our nation�s curricula.

If you�re concerned about commercialization in our public schools, please visit the good folks at commercialalert.org.

www.commercialalert.org...

Rant over.


[Edited on 3-10-2003 by kukla]

Hmm i'm not quite sure if i grok all of this but CSR is a whole bunch of money given out to educational non-profits or businesses. Bush and co want to standardized education across the boad so they're demanding that the material you produce be consistent with guidelines from all 50 states. This costs money to format and only one person does (New American schools). Now when you say they own CSR models, is that like own as in a business patent?

And DOEd redefined small business so huge corps could get in this business?

Is this what you're saying? You're facing bigger competition w/o the being aligned with state standards?



[Edited on 2-10-2003 by ktprktpr]

Every Federal agency has an SBIR arm. The rule change applies to ALL SBIR programs.

[Edited on 30-10-2003 by kukla]