[JesseK]

Running FIRST teams like a small business incorporates all of the technical and non-technical aspects of entrepreneurship in an economy. The lessons learned are higher in quantity than college and tit for tat cost less than a college degree. The real world experience of FIRST students will show a ROI to a community or business that supports the FIRST team, either via innovations*, new businesses, or a generally better-skilled workforce that is able to keep jobs from going overseas.

*As an example of how FIRST has ROI for even the individual adults that support it, I'm about to submit an invention to my company that has many innovative facets in a great multitude of applications. I have only ever learned software and electronics in school and my job, yet this is a purely mechanical invention. Without the networking and inspiration of FIRST, the invention itself would probably not exist for many more years.