1. Go to the school
Every version of debate access that asks students to travel to the program fails for the students who most need it. A student without a ride does not come to a Saturday workshop across town. A student with an after-school job does not come to a central practice. Our coaches teach in the school building, during the day where possible and immediately after it otherwise. Attendance follows.
2. The teacher is the program
A CUDL coach can start a club. Only a teacher in the building can keep it alive. Our most durable programs are the ones where we spent the first year coaching the teacher as much as the students: sitting with them during practice, explaining ballots, and handing them the curriculum with the expectation that they would run it. Programs where we were the only adults who understood the activity did not survive our absence.
3. Free has to mean free
A ten-dollar entry fee is a rounding error to a funder and a barrier to a family. The same is true of a five-dollar meal at a tournament, a required blazer, or a bus fare. We removed every one of those costs, including the ones that seemed too small to matter, and enrollment at the schools where we did so changed immediately. Free means the school and the student pay nothing at any point, and it means saying so out loud, repeatedly, to families who have learned to expect a catch.
4. Local tournaments matter more than we expected
Our first instinct was to get students to the biggest competitions we could reach. The students who thrived were the ones who first competed at small local tournaments against other new programs, with trained community judges and short travel. A student's first tournament should be one they can succeed at. Regional and state competition are the destination, not the entry point.
5. The research is not the reason students show up
We cite the studies on debate and college readiness because funders and schools should see them, and because they are true. Students join because a teacher they trust invited them, the first meeting was fun, and someone told them they were good at it. Both things have to be true at once: a rigorous case for the program to the adults who fund it, and a warm, personal case to the fifteen-year-old deciding whether to stay after school.
What comes next
More schools, more coaches, and a deeper pathway to state-level competition. The model has not changed since the first partner school, and we do not expect it to. If you run a school, a company, or a foundation and want to help, here is where to start.
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