[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

It is obvious that people have very strong opinions about the robotic competitions that are available. Here in Texas, there is another strong competition that is deserving of attention and monetary support - BEST. For that matter, there are several robotic programs in Texas and all have value and are capable of making inroads into the deficit that we face nationally regarding math, engineering, problem solving, science, and technology and people moving into those fields.

I think Jane has hit the nail on the head -- there is no one solution to this problem. The NASA Robotics Alliance is the model I would like to see adopted by more governmental agencies. They have been big supporters of FIRST, but they also support BEST, Botball, Robocup, the Trinity Fire-Fighting contest, VRC, and a bunch of others. STEM education/exposure is not a single problem with one solution, and I don't understand why Texas, for example, doesn't have a more sophisticated program for supporting the goal of STEM involvement for youth.

If spreading STEM was really the goal, shouldn't Texas should be supporting all STEM programs and not just FIRST? This sort of narrowly-focused grant program is more disquieting than exciting.