FIRST Advocacy Don Bossi February 2019 1 Advocacy

FIRST ® Advocacy Don Bossi February 2019 1

Advocacy Overview Our Goal: Make government funds available to schools to enable and support participation in FIRST programs, with an emphasis on engaging under-represented or under-served populations in STEM. Sources of U. S. Public Education Funding for Grades K-12* Federal Funding (9%) Local Funding (41%) State Funding (50%) *Source: U. S. Dept. of Education 2

U. S. Federal Advocacy • Federal Programs: – Title IV, Part A: Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) – Title IV, Part B: 21 st Century Community Learning Centers – Ameri. Corps VISTA Program – Perkins Act / Career and Tech Education (CTE) • Resources and Methods – – Part-time DC-based Lobbyist (Jim Burger) Director of External Engagement (Kerri Maxwell) National Advocacy Conference Grass. Roots Network of Advocates 3

But… • Most funding decisions made at state and local levels • HQ resources are developing replicable models, tools, and templates to support state and local advocacy efforts. 4

State-Level Examples • A growing number of state governments provide support to schools for FIRST teams: Michigan: $2. 5 m (avg. ) per year for past 4 years Texas Workforce Commission: $1 m per year for 8 years Iowa Scale-Up Grants: Average of ~$275 k per year for 5 years Washington: Grew from $150 k/yr in 2011 to $825 k/yr in 2018; currently applying for additional $3 M Oregon: $500 K over 2 years, currently applying for additional funding Florida: $200 k, new funding in 2016; increased to $500 k in 2017 Wisconsin: $250 k, new grant signed at 2016 FRC Regional event New Hampshire: $375 k toward FIRST in every school Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed Assembly Bill 665 into law at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2016 FIRST Robotics Wisconsin Regional Competition 5

FIRST – 2017 -18 Season Recap ® Teams & Participants by U. S. State / Territory FIRST 2017 -2018 Season State Alaska Alabama Arkansas Arizona California Colorado Connecticut DC Delaware Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Iowa Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Massachusett Maryland Maine Michigan Minnesota Missouri Mississippi Montana # FLL Jr Teams 65 38 34 69 667 150 9 68 569 201 17 76 228 57 267 121 39 70 83 133 235 56 616 257 317 25 16 # FLL # FTC Teams 194 95 71 349 1753 336 203 25 79 725 749 21 124 412 177 630 324 106 210 150 465 398 89 527 641 488 84 90 50 12 20 65 405 67 40 8 16 172 118 0 29 210 33 181 75 25 14 31 87 117 2 436 193 187 56 31 1 14 25 60 314 36 51 11 3 80 82 2 25 28 15 57 49 24 11 37 78 40 26 508 215 73 11 2 FIRST 2017 -2018 Season % FIRST Total # of Estimated Participants as Teams Total # of % of Total # FRC Across All Teams Youth 4 FIRST Participants Population Programs (ages 6 - 18) 310 159 150 543 3139 596 444 53 166 1546 1150 40 254 878 282 1135 569 194 305 301 763 790 173 2087 1306 1065 176 139 2, 467 1, 458 1, 597 5, 356 29, 926 5, 200 4, 199 609 1, 275 12, 934 10, 428 320 2, 363 7, 464 2, 463 9, 877 5, 293 1, 932 2, 515 2, 933 7, 338 6, 764 1, 718 24, 972 13, 975 9, 501 1, 657 1, 176 1. 88% 0. 18% 0. 31% 0. 45% 0. 56% 0. 72% 0. 78% 0. 85% 0. 43% 0. 56% 0. 55% 1. 11% 1. 40% 0. 77% 0. 46% 0. 37% 0. 34% 0. 37% 0. 70% 0. 69% 0. 89% 1. 53% 1. 49% 0. 94% 0. 31% 0. 71% State North Carolina North Dakota Nebraska New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico Nevada New York Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Vermont Washington Wisconsin West Virginia Wyoming APO TOTAL # FLL Jr # FLL Teams 248 16 29 713 213 88 64 494 373 140 135 260 1 16 186 31 76 560 72 242 21 229 163 118 46 48 9, 222 571 98 114 176 414 103 101 841 557 199 432 461 33 69 333 59 255 1533 294 569 19 628 383 120 72 125 18, 074 # FTC Teams 100 11 22 33 185 22 24 262 104 72 204 136 44 37 4 25 670 53 167 17 173 50 13 24 27 5, 159 % FIRST Total # of Estimated Participants as Teams Total # of % of Total # FRC Across All Teams Youth 4 FIRST Participants Population Programs (ages 6 - 18) 66 4 3 43 81 8 15 172 64 48 51 67 1 6 45 1 34 163 24 75 5 102 61 3 4 0 3, 024 985 129 168 965 893 221 204 1769 1098 459 822 924 35 135 601 95 390 2926 443 1053 62 1132 657 254 146 200 35, 479 8, 706 1, 090 1, 381 7, 091 8, 465 1, 772 1, 807 16, 612 9, 334 4, 352 7, 581 8, 283 295 1, 238 5, 275 723 3, 596 26, 399 3, 914 9, 549 573 10, 678 6, 067 1, 873 1, 192 1, 558 327, 114 0. 51% 0. 90% 0. 41% 3. 53% 0. 58% 0. 49% 0. 37% 0. 55% 0. 48% 0. 63% 1. 19% 0. 42% 0. 05% 0. 78% 0. 65% 0. 48% 0. 33% 0. 50% 0. 59% 0. 70% 0. 63% 0. 91% 0. 63% 0. 68% 1. 19% 0. 61% 6

Mobilizing State and Local Advocacy • Encourage Governors, Legislative leaders, Commissioners of Education, and School Superintendents to attend events and become advocates within their schools • Encourage corporations and businesses to advocate on behalf of FIRST and STEM funding • Encourage FIRST teams to lobby their state members of congress and governors • Encourage teams to attend local school board and PTA/O meetings • Seek to have Robotics recognized as a 21 st-century sport and provide similar recognition and benefits as provided to other sports or activities 7

Join the FIRST Advocay Network • Sign up for the FIRST Advocacy Network – www. fistnac. org/fan 8

Questions? 9