Our Inherent Privilege

I don’t know about you, but getting up at five o’clock in the morning—on a weekend, no less—is not quite my idea of a good time. But, what that egregious wakeup time does signal is the opportunity for me to partake in one of my favorite activities: congressional debate. Yes, I love Congress, even though I know many in the Speech and Debate community think less of it. My sacrifice of a few hours of sleep might take a lot from me, but really the ability to wake up and do an activity I love is a privilege. 

It’s not just a privilege because I have found an activity that I love and am passionate about. It’s a privilege because not everyone has the same opportunities we have. 

In a study published by the National Library of Medicine in 2022, entitled “Debate in Public Versus Independent Secondary Schools in New York City,” researcher Dr. Erin T. Jacques and her colleagues delved deeper into how the presence of debate in high schools affects students. Specifically, she looked at debate as a mechanism for better health literacy and whether the presences of debate programs across NYC were more likely to affect students of different backgrounds. 

Her results were, unfortunately, not shocking. 

The study concluded that students attending private schools were “more than three times as likely” to have debate programs than public schools. Only six percent of sampled schools were private, and yet they had more than 82% of all of the debate programs found. Only one-fourth of all public schools in the area had a debate team.

And who are these public schools composed of? For the schools that did not offer a debate program, a staggering majority—nearly 90%— of the students at those schools were non-white. 

But what does that mean? Not only do public schools disproportionately see fewer debate programs, but minority communities specifically are more likely to be affected by this lack. This is especially bad because currently, minority communities make up a majority of students enrolled in schools across the country. In a fact sheet published by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2021, only 48.1 percent of all K-12 students in the United States identified as being white. 

This is a stark contrast from our Speech and Debate community. In the National Speech and Debate Association’s Mission Statement, they proclaim to be “inspiring a diverse community” of high schoolers across the nation. However, the numbers don’t lie. The NSDA’s Membership Database corroborates this, reporting that, in the 2022-23 school year, 73.29% of all students in the NSDA were white. That number is significantly above the nationally reported rates of white high school students. 

This inequity is dangerous to those it neglects. A 2022 study entitled “Interscholastic Policy* Debate Promotes Critical Thinking and College-Going," conducted by researchers from both Harvard University and the University of Virginia reported that students who participate in debate programs are more than 12 percent more likely to graduate high school and attend higher education. 

Speech and debate specifically is incredibly inaccessible to communities across the United States. This is due to a multitude of factors, including the high costs of participation that can spell thousands of dollars a year for any one program, the requirement of a dedicated coach to such a demanding activity, and access to materials that may actually allow students to succeed. To anyone that claims the debate space is equitable, this is clear evidence of the inaccessibility that lies in the very activity that champions equality. 

School districts across the country are underfunded to the tune of billions of dollars a year, and even when they receive just enough funding, it almost certainly is not going to Speech & Debate programs. For many public schools, clubs like speech and debate only exist because of the dedication of teachers and coaches. In an article written in the Washington Post by teachers from the Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School in Queens, New York, the faculty explained that as funding was cut, instead of making students quit speech and debate due to the costs, their two coaches are “going unpaid” for the dozens of hours a month they spend coaching and at tournament. In fact, my own debate program has been at risk of capsizing every single year since the COVID-19 pandemic because of the burden on the six different coaches we’ve had in the years since. Instead of being supported in any sort of economic fashion, these teams are surviving off the pure passion of those that run them. 

Speech and debate might just seem like an activity for talkative, over-the-top extroverts to some, but the research has proven that it is so much more than that. Speech and debate makes individuals more confident and encourages education about history, policy, and the current events that are happening in our world. Most notably, it encourages students to think beyond themselves and their situations to help others and advance beyond who they were when they started. Speech and debate provides astounding opportunities for growth for students, but these opportunities are gatekept by the constraints of limited accessibility and funding for school districts who don’t see debate as a priority. 

In a private school, having a speech and debate team is almost a given. But for the public schools out there, just like mine, that do have a debate team—that is an immense privilege. However, it’s not enough just to recognize our privilege. We have an obligation to help pay that forward to advance equity in other schools throughout our communities. 

And that’s exactly why nonprofits and organizations like Equality in Forensics are so important. Right now, the catalog of everything EIF has done to ensure more equity for schools and students who don’t have the same access to resources that many have is far beyond what was available in the debate space a mere two years ago. Not to mention, EIF’s regional chapters provide an even greater close-knit chance at community. These communities have collaborated to expand resource availability, and have enacted real change. Both the South Florida and Idaho chapters have petitioned their state leagues to make a more equitable debate space for all. 

So, join your regional chapter to get involved. Equality in Forensics has more than fifteen regional chapters open right now. Regardless of where you are in the country—or even the world—if your region doesn’t already have a chapter the sole requirements are six members, two of which must be from different schools, and different debating districts. 

It’s easy to think that, just because you’re in high school, you don’t have a lot of power. As an individual, there might be some truth in that, but even so, there is strength in numbers. While it might seem like a near insurmountable problem, by banding together as a collective, speech and debate students across the country can use the skills they’ve learned through this very activity to create meaningful change. 

So, don’t just read these articles and use the resources Equality in Forensics provides—be a contributor yourself! It’s easy to just read an article, repost on social media, and scroll away, but creating real change takes a lot more effort than posting a story on Instagram. Use the resources that are at your disposal to make a difference. 

There are countless people who could be successful at speech and debate if only they were given access to the same opportunities that we were. This starts with us. Right now, those that EIF supports are confined to people who are already in the activity. That is not enough. So many potential debaters don’t even know that organizations like Equality in Forensics exist to help their journeys. As a result, we must be the purveyors of our own change on behalf of those who simply do not know of the resources out there that are waiting to be utilized. Reach out to schools in your area that don’t have debate teams and inquire about helping them start. For many, the idea of starting a club all alone is daunting—as it very well is! However, with the resources and support that Equality in Forensics provides, that doesn’t have to be the case. For the public schools that don’t have debate teams, EIF has the resources to get started. Now, it’s up to us to let them know it exists.  

We are in speech and debate. We are writers. We are speakers. We have an obligation to use our voices for important change. That change starts with speaking up for public speaking (and debate!). 

*Debate about policy—governmental laws, regulations, administrations, etc. Not to be confused with the NSDA policy debate event.