POLICY DEBATE

Policy debate is by far the most rigorous form of academic debate competition and one of the most challenging competitions available to students anywhere in the school system.

It’s not for the faint of heart! And, frankly, that’s why most schools don’t even try. One longtime Dartmouth coach put it simply – you can’t have a great university without a great debate team. And yes, Dartmouth is a powerhouse in policy debate.

Students debate one topic all year long with a partner in rounds lasting 2 hours each. Over the course of a year of competition, students engage in as much research as graduate students do in writing a master’s thesis.

On the affirmative side, teams formulate a hypothetical government plan to solve a problem in the world, researching and citing evidence on every facet of the problem and how their plan would best solve that problem. On the negative side, teams formulate disadvantages to the affirmative plan along with possible ways to solve the problem better, as well as critiques of the assumptions inherent in the government plan. As the round progresses, students cross-examine each other over their arguments and introduce secondary evidence to address arguments brought up during the round.

All of the above is why policy debate is uniquely recognized by colleges, college admissions officers, and premier employers of top tier college graduates (investment banking and consulting firms) as some of the finest training available to young people. A number of colleges also offer scholarships to top high school policy debaters, both for academics and to continue debating in college.

Policy debate is NOT an audience-centered form of debate. It is a rigorous intellectual exercise in which students push themselves to the limit. When you and your friends play chess, you might take a minute or two to ponder your next move. But when you watch grand masters play, they play at a VERY fast speed because they know ahead of time all of the possible scenarios they might confront with every possible move.

Given the time constraints of the round and the seemingly infinite amount of research available online today, students read evidence quickly to enter it into the record, but do slow down and focus on more traditional persuasion as the round progresses, so that they can accentuate whatever arguments and pieces of evidence they believe should be weighed more heavily by judges in deciding the round.

This course covers advanced debate topics required to succeed on the national level. Students will learn how to write their own national-level affirmative and negative cases under the supervision of coaches, as well as tailoring arguments and rebuttals to different judge pools at the various major regular season, state and national qualifying, and national tournaments. Coaches will also travel with students to top competitions and judge and coach students between rounds. Tournaments occur throughout the year but the emphasis will be on major invitational tournaments and building students up to qualify to - and succeed at - the Tournament of Champions.

• Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase fiscal redistribution in the United States by adopting a federal jobs guarantee, expanding Social Security, and/or providing a basic income.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its security cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, biotechnology, cybersecurity.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its restrictions on legal immigration to the United States.

For classes, students will need a high speed Internet connection, an electronic device with which to access the Internet, pen and paper to take notes, and a willingness to learn both about the topic and from other students. In-person classes will also require that they like eating pizza and drinking soda or bottled water.

For competition, students will need conservative professional attire, an electronic device to access the Internet, a timer or a smartphone timer app (TimeKept for iPhone and NSDA Timer for Android are strongly recommended). In-person tournaments will also require coordinating rides back and forth to competition sites and meal money, while online tournaments will require a high speed (preferably wired) Internet connection and a hotspot or other backup connection is strongly recommended.

For parents looking for a good value on a laptop, Homeboy Industries is selling refurbished MacBooks for as little as $199. TableTote stands are also recommended as they allow students to place their laptops on a level surface at chest level and enunciate their arguments clearly.

Qualification to the “TOC” requires students to place in late elimination rounds at major regular season tournaments (earning qualifying “bids”) at least twice, although students can be considered on a case-by-case basis with one qualifying bid. This tournament is held every year at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky and is considered the most prestigious debate tournament in the country.

Qualification to the CHSSA (California High School Speech Association) state tournament requires students to place among the top handful of spots in their qualifying league. Students are required to compete representing their degree-granting school and RLA will coordinate with school officials to facilitate this. Students attending Conejo Valley area schools compete through the Tri-County Forensic League while students living in West Los Angeles compete through the "Western Bay" (West Los Angeles / South Bay) Forensics League. The state tournament alternates every year between northern and southern California.

Qualification to NSDA nationals requires students to place among the top handful of sports in the West L.A. district qualifier. Students are also required to compete on behalf of their degree-granting school and RLA will coordinate with school officials to facilitate this. The NSDA national tournament is usually held in second tier cities in the middle of the country (Des Moines, Kansas City, Indianapolis, etc.) but has been as far east as Florida and as far west as Arizona.

Competition on the “national circuit” for debate can get expensive very quickly and students and families need to remember that in Southern California, they are competing against some of the wealthiest schools in the world. There is always another national level tournament somewhere in the country but that doesn’t mean that we have to attend it.

RLA coaches have always had the philosophy that it is possible for students in SoCal to be nationally competitive while traveling regionally – traveling to tournaments in places one city away like the Bay Area, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, and occasionally Salt Lake City. It does students no good in the long term to win every debate tournament possible if they fall behind in their schoolwork.