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

[Travis Hoffman]

The person does not intend the money to go to ALL existing FIRST teams - he specifically wishes to target inner city schools.

I do not like earmarking the money for a certain sector of schools, presuming that they *need it the most*. If we're going that route, many rural schools have far less access to resources and funding than inner city schools do. I should know - I attended a rural high school. And as we know, there are plenty of inner city school districts with (very successful) FIRST teams already. How many rural, farm country schools can claim the same?

If you're going to target a specific sector for growth, I'd prefer you reach out to rural areas. But then, there aren't as many voters there. HMM, wonder if that has anything to do with it..... Why don't we just permit equivalent access to the funding to schools of ALL forms, and call it a day, eh?

By the way - I do agree with some of the commenters - I find it rather *interesting* that a private sector individual seemingly has so much influence with Congress as to have legislation drafted up in two shakes of a lamb's tail. I'd rather have such influential people on FIRST's side, but it seems just a weeee bit odd......

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

The person does not intend the money to go to ALL existing FIRST teams - he specifically wishes to target inner city schools.

I do not like earmarking the money for a certain sector of schools, presuming that they *need it the most*. If we're going that route, many rural schools have far less access to resources and funding than inner city schools do. I should know - I attended a rural high school. And as we know, there are plenty of inner city school districts with (very successful) FIRST teams already. How many rural, farm country schools can claim the same?

If you're going to target a specific sector for growth, I'd prefer you reach out to rural areas. But then, there aren't as many voters there. HMM, wonder if that has anything to do with it..... Why don't we just permit equivalent access to the funding to schools of ALL forms, and call it a day, eh?

By the way - I do agree with some of the commenters - I find it rather *interesting* that a private sector individual seemingly has so much influence with Congress as to have legislation drafted up in two shakes of a lamb's tail. I'd rather have such influential people on FIRST's side, but it seems just a weeee bit odd......

Bingo.

While I believe that the money is a good thing, I cringe at the (appearance of) politicizing of FIRST.

[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.

[Molten]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

If you're going to target a specific sector for growth, I'd prefer you reach out to rural areas. But then, there aren't as many voters there.

That is how Obama turned Indiana blue. Look at the map below. All those red counties and yet the few blue ones win because they have vastly more people. Perhaps he is focusing the money where the people are focused. I'm not saying I agree with this decision, just trying to give a bit of understanding.