What will be called "The Entrepreneurship Business Institute of Florida" will find a home at Loften High School in Gainesville, which already has students studying business. Long hopes that these current students will matriculate into the proposed charter school.

Like any good business plan, the idea has been in development for several years. Since 2004 he has been garnering support from local government agencies as well as local business people, necessary components for the program.

Himself a successful businessman, in addition to county commissioner, Long says he's devised a plan that can help eradicate the next generation of poverty. His charter high school will teach entrepreneurship with the idea that students will then go on to college or training programs in the trades, and with the help of their mentors will have the skills to build their own small businesses. Long says the incentives will be a big draw for potential students, "If you do everything that is required educationally, post graduate, you are eligible for a $100,000 loan." Ten percent of which it is expected will come from the not-for-profit entity Long is building that will run the charter school.

The idea has had the support from the Alachua County School Board early on. According to Deputy Superintendent, Sandy Hollinger, "the Board belongs to a group, a consortium of community members who are interested in having young adults become entrepreneurs." The school district's role will be to monitor the new school.

And Long says it is in the interest of all to back the idea. He says, "The benefit of government trying to socially engineer this process is the tax payers to pay less for taking care of {the poor}, they will take care of them in one way or the other in the social system or the criminal system."

Last week it was released that forty percent of the county's budget goes to the criminal justice system, and more than one-third of school kids are on free and reduced lunch. With that being the reality of poverty in Alachua County, it is now up to the city of Gainesville to decide whether Long's program can help amend these social problems. So far the county has committed $100,000, to be distributed over 4 years,and the city says it will do the same but only conditionally. The main issue, if the school is created will the students come.

Hollinger agreed, "They do need a critical mass of students to attend so they will have to have a recruitment and enrollment plan," she added.

Now Commissioner Long will have to prove to the City Commission that he can get mentors from the community to guide the program. The school will not be ready to open its doors for another two years, but Long's final word on his new idea, "This may sound like a revolutionary idea but it's simple math. the question is do taxpayers want to continue to allow people to do that or do we want to give people opportunities to work themselves out of poverty?"