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Originally Posted by Brandon Martus
I got this message today:
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Brandon:
For your information, Senator Switalski (Sterling Heights area) and Senator Cassis are already in our camp. In fact, I received an email (June 16th) from Senator Cassis, who is the Vice-chairperson of the Education Committee, and she stated that she be will deliberating with the House on this very issue.
I meet at least once per month with Senator Switalski (my district) and will again discuss this issue at our meeting on August 7th. He is definitely convinced of the value that FIRST has on promoting all the best qualities in high school students.
I don't realistically expect the legislature to find $2,000,000 (per year) for the FIRST program, even though it will pay back Michigan many times over but; I do believe that they will appropriate something much less than that, maybe $250,000 per year to promote the establishment of new teams. After all, this was the initial purpose of the Governor's goal. How many new teams can Michigan realistically establish each year? I think the legislature will fund ONLY new rookie teams for just the registration fee to their initial FIRST Regional. That is my opinion.