(Image source: The White House)

BY MOLLY BOLAND

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President Obama mentioned it in his State of the Union address- now it’s reality. Startup America is the White House’s campaign to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. But will it work?

Bloomberg, ZD Net, The New York Observer, and Fox Business are weighing in.

Startup America is a public-private initiative to help find funding for small businesses. Selected to lead the project: AOL Inc. co-founder Steve Case.  Case tells Bloomberg, this project signals a new focus for the Obama Administration.

Steve Case: “...I think it’s great the White House really is recognizing that the focus of the next couple years has to be on the economy, has to be on jobs, and the best way to drive the economy and create jobs is to encourage entrepreneurship. They really are the big job creators in our economy.”

Forbes and PCWorld report investors in Startup America include Facebook, Intel, IMB, and HP. But all those top notch tech companies are cause for concern for one ZDNet blogger.

“Entrepreneurs come in all sizes and fields. We shouldn’t be so enamored with tech that we lose sight of the much larger job-producing picture.”

Also skeptical: The New York Observer, which says the program stands no chance against the recession.

“...the U.S. Small Business Administration plans to match $2 billion in private sector investment over the next five years. That's a welcome contribution, but it'll hardly move the needle in a venture-capital market that saw $21 billion in investment last year alone.”

But some are countering the glass-half-empty outlooks.  Fox Business talks with business entrepreneur Scott Gerber who says, it’s about time someone had a plan.

Scott Gerber: “I think that this is the first time I’ve seen something tangible that is both on a support level and on an educational level that truly is going to make real change. All the way from, you now, k-12 education as well as in the markets as a whole in starting new enterprises and new business.”

So what do you think? Is the White House on the right track with Start-up America?  Or is this just another tricked up government program?
 

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