[Nate Edwards]

When the NASA Robotics Academy in 2007 went to lobby congress for funding we calculated somewhere in 70 Million range for the entry fee for one team at each high school. We didn't consider multiple regionals or sponsoring regionals or other fees because our goal was to get funding for all high schools. We primarily worked with former representative Nick Lampson (TX).

Similar legislation was in the works for stipends for teachers by Rep. Langevin (RI) and Rep McCarthy (NY), but I haven't seen much traction on that issue lately. If we weren't in the crisis we are in now we probably could see several million dollars being allocated to robotics because the support base is there from many angles because of the hard work many individuals and teams have put in over the past few years. I hope that in the next 10 years we see some real money put in from these efforts for schools nationwide but we will see.