High School Coach Says Debate Is Fix for 'Decreasingly Democratic' World

May 05, 2025 At 11:53 AM EDT

Resolved: That a federal department of education should be created with a secretary in the president's cabinet.

This resolution was what high schoolers across the country debated in the 1927-28 school year, and given the executive order President Trump signed on March 20, 2025, it is conceivable this topic could recur by the next administration.

What if such policy decisions were not simply made at the stroke of one man's pen but were subject to argumentation in a high school policy debate round? Imagine cross-examination:

• In your executive order, you acknowledge "the Department of Education does not educate anyone," but, in the following sentence, claim that closing it would "provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them." How do state and local approaches to education better help families escape what you call a failing system when they're already largely responsible for this system?
• You cite poor reading and math scores. Isn't it the case that U.S. school districts with low childhood poverty rates score among the highest-performing countries in the world while those with the highest poverty rates score significantly lower?
• Given your interest in improving educational outcomes, how will this act help alleviate childhood poverty or support districts with a higher proportion of students in poverty? There are obvious limits to this thought experiment — Who's the judge? How do you debate with someone more interested in power than logic? — but it highlights what we are missing in our political climate, one in which reliable, centrist media outlets are banned from the White House as conservative podcasters are provided "unprecedented access": actual engagement with opposing viewpoints.

While a politics that mirrors debate would be more democratic, short of that, developing the skills of debate — and supporting such development in our young people — would help us better navigate a climate that is decreasingly democratic.

Consider the words of DeNaya, a former debater I was lucky to coach in Champaign, Illinois, and at tournaments we traveled to in Chicago, where I have spent the vast majority of my career teaching and coaching. She recently emailed me about debate's impact on her, particularly "ethos, pathos and logos—the three pillars of persuasion," which, she notes, "didn't stay in the classroom."

"At 30 years old, I still use these concepts that help me think critically, weigh facts and make sound decisions," she said. "But it doesn't stop there. Advertisers, politicians and media outlets all use these same persuasive tools to influence you.

Understanding them gave me the power to see through manipulation, to question what I'm told and to make choices based on more than just emotion or authority. So, the next time I negotiate with someone, debate an issue, or even choose what to buy, I remember: those rhetorical appeals from high school weren't just academic concepts. They are the foundation of how we all communicate, how we persuade, and ultimately, how we live our lives."

High school policy debaters, as DeNaya did over a decade ago, deploy numerous skills to withstand their fourth round on the second day of a tournament midway through a season, and you could, with some effort, cultivate these skills to more ably traverse our political landscape. With collective effort, we could resuscitate our democracy. Here are a few of these skills:

1. Debaters build deep and broad knowledge on a single topic, like the aforementioned resolution, over the course of a year. The next time you are about to share the first thing you Googled that confirmed your bias, something I have done too many times, stop and reflect: Have I developed an understanding of the topic I'm about to comment on? Who are the key experts in the field, and what do they say on the topic? How does what I've found fit into this larger understanding?
2. Debaters must prepare to affirm and negate the resolution, debating both sides multiple times during each tournament. This perspective-taking extends empathy to your would-be opponents, allowing you to consider how someone who disagrees with you — those we are often quick to demonize — might see the world, as it clarifies your true position on the issue at hand. Seek out those you disagree with and force yourself to see the opposing viewpoint before settling on a more considered stance.
3. Debaters call out misinformation and disinformation. It's possible the opposing viewpoint is informed by a Russian disinformation campaign. Don't let that slide. But it's also possible your own take is driven by misinformation or disinformation. Interrogate sources, including your own. The campaign my students crafted at the height of the pandemic to "Find Truth on the Internet" and Stanford's Civic Online Reasoning are great starting points.
4. Debaters imagine new possibilities and advocate for change. For decades, every yearlong resolution has proposed that the U.S. Federal Government take a broadly defined action. When on the affirmative, then, debaters advocate for a change within that resolution, from expanding H1-B visas (2018-19) and demilitarizing the police (2020-21) to protecting indigenous water rights (2021-22) and increasing cybersecurity cooperation with NATO (2022-23). Some teams critique (in what debaters call "kritiks") the underlying assumptions of the affirmative case, the performance of their opponents, or even the resolution itself in order to propose an alternative world. Just because something has been does not mean it must be. Envision new possibilities, question underlying assumptions through deliberate doubt and criticality, and, ultimately, act.
5. Debaters maintain stamina. One mantra of the debate community is "don't forfeit" — even if you're overmatched and out of ideas and energy. Let go of that which you cannot change and which depletes your vitality (consider the role of social media here), and focus your attention on that which matters to you and over which you have control. Shayla, a high school junior and one of my current debaters, says her favorite quote, one she comes back to, is one I shared last year: "Sometimes, you've just gotta do the thing."
6. Debaters learn even in defeat, especially in defeat. I always tell my debaters, "I don't care if you win. I care that you learn (and have fun)." Some wins are lucky, some losses unlucky. If you aim to win, to own your opponent, you may feel good in the moment, but you have not gotten stronger, and our democracy has not gotten healthier. Treat every interaction as a learning opportunity, and any seeming loss becomes an investment in yourself. If you fail to convince someone who disagrees with you, ask them what evidence could change their mind — and be willing to alter even your own strongly held beliefs in the face of disconfirming evidence. We can only repair a government by the people if we allow people, including ourselves, to grow.
   

   

Supporting high school debate is also critical. This past season, Chicago Public Schools dramatically reduced its funding for Chicago Debates, one of the largest leagues among the 20 cities of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL). Stripped of resources, far too many Chicago high schools shuttered their debate teams. This widens the socioeconomic gap at the same time wealthy suburban districts continue to spend tens of thousands of dollars to fly debaters across the country as it denies access to debate's benefits for the most vulnerable:

Compared to non-debaters, debaters are 70 percent more likely to graduate from high school, experience more academic growth, and have higher test scores, stronger GPAs, and better soft skills, like using feedback, evaluating complex ideas and building resilience.

Here are three avenues to help high school debate programs — and each is even more important if you can support a school or district with higher student poverty rates:

1. Contact local officials and encourage them to increase program funding. Feel free to cite the statistics above or any of the ones on Portland Urban Debate League's excellent "Why Debate Matters" webpages.
2. Reach out to your local high school and donate your time, especially if you have expertise in anything loosely related to debate, like the law or the resolution (next year's policy topic is about the Arctic — watch out, Greenland). If you're willing to learn how to judge, ask to be taught and see debate for yourself. Even ferrying snacks to a debate tournament is a worthy act of generosity.
3. Donate to NAUDL or any of its affiliates, like Chicago Debates, my home league.

I don't know the ultimate fate of the Department of Education, but I suspect our inaction will increase the disparities that have been widening for decades.

In 1958, former high school debater and not-yet President John F. Kennedy concluded, "Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past — let us accept our own responsibility for the future." The more we can act like debaters — while supporting the programs that educate the next generation of leaders — the more we may hold our current leaders to account and, hopefully, pull our democracy back from the brink.

Charles Rosentel was recently named the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues' Debate Coach of the Year. He has been coaching high school debate since he started teaching 18 years ago. For the last 13 years, he has done so at Pritzker College Prep in the Chicago neighborhood of Hermosa, where he instructs sophomores in World History and AP World History. Across four of his own current and previous campuses and by teaching online debate courses, he has coached hundreds of debaters, including the 2016-17 Illinois Communication and Theatre Association's Novice Student of the Year and the 2020-21 Chicago Debates' Debater of the Year. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Northwestern University and a master's degree in history teaching and curriculum from Harvard University.