[Jonathan Norris]

I agree with Cory on this one, FIRST Robotics Challenge is not for every high school... there I said it. I have seen too many situations where FRC just doesn't work at a high school, and I am now seeing it first hand trying to start a team in a city and region that hasn't ever heard of FIRST. Trying to convince a cash strapped school that you can run a $10,000+ robotics program when there are easier and cheaper alternatives available isn't easy.

It comes down to one simple fact: the cost of entry is too high. Yea I know FIRST does a great job getting sponsors to subsidize some of the cost, but $10,000 to run a basic team is still too much for a large number of schools. The major selling point of FIRST is that it really isn't just your average high school competition, it is an advanced robotics competition that is run more like a professional sporting event then a simple one day high school science competition.

By having these small regional events leading up to the normal sized state event, you are reducing the quality of the regionals, and by association will reduce the quality of the competition, robots, and ultimately the great learning experience that FIRST is.

FRC needs to continue to be what it is, the most advanced high school robotics competition in the world. Where students get a unique opportunity to work with engineers on an advanced very real world engineering problem. Lets not water-down what is a great competition and learning experience just so we can accommodate teams that don't have the resources to compete. Let FTC and VEX be the platform that gets the ideals and competition of FIRST into every high school. There is no reason why FTC and VEX can't be in every high school, but there are plenty of reasons why FRC can't and shouldn't try to be.