BCDL Debate Manual
WOOD-RIDGE JUNIOR SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL BERGEN COUNTY DEBATE LEAGUE SCHEDULE Season 2017-2018
COACHES: Mrs. Gaven and Mr. Berger
EMAILS: and
Special Events:
Ø Tuesday, September 26th-Baylor Debate Clinic @ Dumont High School
o We leave @3:00pm and will be back @8:30pm! Cost is 25.00-covers affirmative briefs and lecture on how to tackle this year’s resolved!!!! Bring money for pizza dinner!
Varsity Debate Schedule - during school day
Ø We leave school between 7:45am - 8:15am and return around 2:35pm
1. Friday, October 13th @ Cresskill, 8:45 am
2. Friday, October 27th @ Fort Lee, 9:15 am
3. Friday, November 17th @ Dwight Englewood, 9:05am
4. Thursday, December 14th @ Bergenfield, 9:45 am
5. Friday, January 5th @ Becton, 9:00 am
6. Friday, February 2nd @ Fort Lee, 9:15 am
7. Wednesday, February 28th @ WOOD-RIDGE, 8:57 am
Varsity Championships will be Friday, March 16th @ Tenafly High School- 9:00 AM-4:00PM
(Our best team and three judges will compete!!!)
Junior Varsity Debates - all start at 4:00pm
Ø We leave at 3:00 pm and return around 6:30pm
1. Thursday, October 26th @ Fair Lawn
2. Thursday, November 30th @ Leonia
3. Wednesday, December 13th @ Ridgefield Park
4. Wednesday, January 10th @ Becton
5. Wednesday, February 7th @ Demarest
6. Monday, February 26th @ WOOD-RIDGE
7. Thursday, March 8th @ Becton
JV Championship is Tuesday, March 13th! @ Holy Angels Academy @3:30 pm-7:30pm
2017-18 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
POLICY DEBATE TOPIC
Education Reform
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its
funding and/or regulation of elementary and/or secondary education in the
United States.
United States students do not rank well compared to their peers from other countries. Achievement gaps also exist between children from different ethnic groups and between affluent and low-income students. Are the schools at fault or are other issues to blame? What changes in funding, regulations, standards, or support for our schools will bring better results? Do we need more teachers, higher teacher pay, uniform teacher standards, and/or smaller class sizes? Will more money for technology improve teaching? Do we need more flexibility to employ and develop different types of schools? Do we need more flexibility within our public schools? What will bring up graduation rates and help United States students compete internationally? How can we prepare and train the future United States workforce? This resolution will provide a balanced field to discuss these important education issues. The affirmative teams will have the ability to critically examine everything from charter schools to online programs to for-profit schools. There is flexibility to argue for or against K-12 in traditional schools versus more specialized schools. Each area of the country has substantially different standards and rules. This topic allows students to examine those differences and how the federal government can improve education across the board. Negative ground includes arguments from traditional policy options such as federalism, States CP, other agent counterplans, solvency deficits as to whether the affirmative is affecting a large enough scope to solve, spending DAs, politics scenarios, etc. Critical literature is also applicable to the wide variety of presumptions within our government and education systems.