[cadandcookies]

While I won't hold it against Michigan for running things their own way, I'm very much opposed to extending their rules for the progression of FIRST programs across every program in the states or outside of them. Telling everyone, everywhere, that FRC is the only high school robotics program available to them in the FIRST progression isn't a sensible approach for many areas of the United States, much less the world. There are many communities for which FRC is prohibitively expensive-- telling them the only FIRST program they can do is leaving high school students in those areas with fewer options than they had before, which isn't good for anyone.

Michigan may be able to afford this model because of their state grants, but most everywhere else that's simply impractical. If I have a group of high schoolers in a town that has less than 500 people living in it, it's ridiculous to expect them to pony up for an FRC team. Yes, I'm aware that VEX or BEST are out there, but I don't think it aligns with FIRST's goals to say "Sorry, but you don't fit into our model, go somewhere else." FIRST has and is being run as a very inclusive and flexible organization. Regional partners have a good deal of freedom to run programs in their areas how they see fit, and I see no reason to change that at this point.