"some teams in the county are paying as much as $3,500 a year to rent classroom space" in MCPS school buildings

High School Robotics Teams Pushing for More Recognition From Montgomery County Public Schools

...“If you can support all the other sports in the county, then you should be able to support this as well,” said Sunil Tohan, a 16-year-old junior at Richard Montgomery and a member of one of the school’s two robotics teams. “The teamwork, problem-solving, cooperation and the competition are the same things you learn from being on a sports team. It’s the varsity sport for the mind.”...

...“[The school board members] didn’t realize the scope of what we’re doing. The idea is mainly to start conversations. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if Montgomery County does want to make STEM a big part of its future, we think this is one of the ways they can do it,” Biel-Goebel said...

 http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Beat/2015/High-School-Robotics-Teams-Pushing-for-More-Recognition-From-Montgomery-County-Public-Schools/