USA Today Article: "FIRST thing: Robotics in every school"

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by neoshaakti

Very cool article...I wonder if this will actually make it through congress.
Maybe we can claim this is stimulating the economy (which it is?). I'm guessing that most teams spend their cash.
How do you think 100 mill would be split up between teams/ regionals? Would teams with corporate sponsors still get an equal portion of the 100 mill (which means they still have more $$$ than their fellow teams)?

To answer your question, just a raw 100,000,000 divided by 1700 teams would come out to roughly 58,000. Now the real question, would this be a one-time payment or an item in the budget every year? Divide the number in half and make it an annual thing and Id be ecstatic.

Now, for the downside (because someone has to say it) This will encourage growth, if schools think they can get more funding (because what school doesnt want more funding?) by starting an FRC team they could start a team, grab the money and let the team flounder. In addition, growth at this point may turn out to be a strain on the mentor force. I know of several teams in the Michigan area who are hurting for mentors, well known, large teams. Also, the approach that most people take to mentoring a team at this moment seems to be, "FIRST is like a pizza, we all think different toppings should be on it" Clearly this would go out the window should we become a part of the educational institution.

Ironically, getting government monetary support would, in my opinion, cause more problems than it solves. Without more details about the legislature I cannot determine if this is a good or a bad thing, does anyone have a copy of what hes drafted?