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

[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.