SENATE:

Carina Wang, American Heritage Boca Delray

Sophia Osborne, Suncoast

1st Alternate: Connor Ehrich, Martin County

2nd Alternate: Colby Feibus, West Boca Raton

HOUSE:

Melodie Barrau, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Elena Martinez, American Heritage Boca Delray

Nicholas Raffinengo, Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches

Matthew Fleischer, Martin County

Madison Resnick, American Heritage Boca Delray

Matthew McGann, Wellington

1st Alternate:  Isaiah Feliscar, Royal Palm Beach

2nd Alternate: Sheevam Patel, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

3rd Alternate: Reese Barrett, Jupiter

In addition, Asher Moss of Dreyfoos School of the Arts auto-qualified in the House at the 2019 NSDA National Tournament.

All finalists are asked to be at William T. Dwyer High School around 5pm Saturday, February 22, in tournament attire, for the awards ceremony that is to follow the speech and debate qualifier tournament.

NOTE: It is possible some of our qualifiers will also qualify in other events, which they have possible listed as a higher priority on their NSDA Letter of Intent forms, which means alternates could be representing Florida Oceanfront in New Mexico this June.

“Since taking office, my administration has introduced several major initiatives to affirm my commitment to public education in Florida, especially in improving Florida’s K-12 education system,” said Governor DeSantis. “By offering civic debate, we can better challenge our students to think critically and provide them with the knowledge of our nation’s founding principles and institutions. I hope that this initiative will have a strong impact on classrooms and school campuses across our state as we look to build a bolder, brighter, and better education system in Florida.”

“Thank you to Bernie Marcus and The Marcus Foundation for their generous contribution to the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative,” said Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran. “This funding will empower Florida’s students to improve themselves, their education and their future through the profound impacts of speech and debate programs. Research shows that almost 100 percent of debate students attend college, and debate promotes higher level of student civic participation, creating civically engaged lifelong learners. Governor DeSantis has prioritized civics, and this initiative will be instrumental in providing students with the opportunity to become great citizens that will preserve our constitutional republic for future generations.”

“I have long been a proponent of civics education in the classroom,” said philanthropist Bernie Marcus, chairman of The Marcus Foundation. “Every child needs to understand the ideals that our country was founded on. What Florida is doing to bring civics and debate to every student is very innovative and should be a model for the rest of the country. I applaud Governor DeSantis and Education Commissioner Corcoran for their leadership and vision and am glad to be a partner in this effort.”

The Florida Civics and Debate Initiative is expected to:

• Promote the expansion of middle and high school debate and speech programs to all of Florida’s public school districts;
• Increase middle school civics end of course state passage rate from 71 percent to 80 percent;
• Increase high school U.S. History end of course state passage rate from 71 percent to 75 percent;
• Implement a National Civics, Speech, and Debate competition for all students—the first-of-its-kind in the nation; and
• Make Florida a nationwide leader in training high school teachers in all Florida counties and train other states to continue or begin to successfully run competitive speech and debate teams at their schools.

Florida Education Foundation

The Florida Education Foundation (FEF) serves over 200,000 educators, 2.8 million students, and over 3,600 schools throughout Florida and believes all students have equal value and should have access to a quality education to prepare them for a brighter future. As a valued partner in public education and a direct support organization for the Florida Department of Education, the FEF invests in high achievement for every student to contribute to Florida’s globally competitive workforce.

FEF’s primary purpose is to enhance and support educational excellence in all schools across Florida and values connecting with organizations that are also committed to strengthening Florida’s education system. FEF envisions a future in which every child graduates from high school ready to thrive in the next chapter of their life. Their programs and initiatives focus on systemic change and support the highest achievement for all of Florida’s students, educators, and leaders. They provide numerous opportunities to invest in events and programs that celebrate and elevate educators and encourage student success.

https://www.flgov.com/2020/01/27/governor-ron-desantis-announces-florida-civics-and-debate-initiative-with-the-marcus-foundation/

Flanked by students from Omni Middle School in suburban Boca Raton fresh from their first win in public forum debate, DeSantis thanked the Marcus Foundation and billionaire Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, for providing the money in an effort that will extend through the next three years.

DeSantis has proposed the state commit an additional $375,000 to implement this initiative that he boasted will be the first of its kind to expand speech and debate to middle and high school students in all of Florida’s public districts.

The governor said the benefits reach beyond improved civics education.

“We live in an era right now where everyone is kind of buried in their electronic devices and it’s almost as if people engage more in text messaging than just person-to-person contact sometimes,” DeSantis said. “There’s value in having a student be able to stand up and address a group of people or address one person and try to persuade them of a certain position. That is something that really is always going to be important in a society; a device can’t substitute for that.”

The governor has been demanding the state beef up its civics education for at least a year. Last week, he detailed several efforts to do that. Florida is among the few states to have a statewide civics exam, a required course in middle school and elements of civics in other high school courses.

To grow that footprint further, DeSantis unveiled his plans that include embedding civics lessons in classrooms beginning in kindergarten and developing a civic literacy test for high school seniors. These plans await the blessing of Florida’s Board of Education.

Monday, he honed it to speech and debate as a critical niche in civics education. Its proponents statewide have long sought to involve more students in classes and competition that by their nature build on both research and public speaking skills.

“That kind of education is truly transformative,” said Beth Eskin, a high school speech and debate instructor in Orange County and director of the Florida Debate Initiative. “Every individual has a voice, has a story. Speech and debate allows students to explore themselves by exploring their communities and the world.”

The governor’s office pointed to research that indicates “almost 100 percent of debate students attend college.” Those students also become more civically engaged as adults, according to the research.

DeSantis’ office says the effort being dubbed “The Florida Civics and Debate Initiative” also will increase the statewide pass rate on the middle school civics exam from 71 percent to 80 percent.

The classes and competitions span multiple skill sets from debate to dramatic interpretation.

Omni eighth-graders Mia Landau and Sara Meran spent weeks preparing for their first outing, a public forum debate on the pros and cons of “offensive cyber operations.” They didn’t know which side they would be arguing, so they had to be versed and have speeches prepared for both.

Having won their first competition, they are now in the throes of preparing for the next: a debate on imposing economic sanctions on Venezuela.

Both said they joined the debate club in pursuit of getting into the pre-law program at neighboring Spanish River High and perhaps a career in law to follow. While they participate as an extracurricular, some of their opponents have the benefit of speech and debate class.

Pushing such a class into every middle and high school and making competitions available to all is not a cheap endeavor, say the educators on the ground.

Last week’s competition in Palm Beach County cost $12 per student. At Omni, parents were tapped to provide transportation and teacher Daisy Klave was also required to provide two judges (herself and a parent volunteer) or pay another $25.

Of 23 high schools in Palm Beach County, 17 have an active debate program. And roughly half of the county’s middle schools do, according to Paul Gaba, director of speech and debate at Wellington High school and an officer in the countywide forensics league.

“A lot of it is just getting teachers in a position where they can start a program,” said Gaba, who once mapped out a five-year plan to get debate in every middle and high school countywide, but he said the proposal never got traction.

When people ask him the value of such courses and competitions, Gaba points to the survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

“Look what a difference they’ve made on the social and political board. Whether you agree with their message or not, they are getting their voices … heard,” Gaba said.

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200127/desantis-announces-5-million-to-get-more-kids-into-speech-debate