Helping More Massachusetts Students Find Their Voice
It is not a groundbreaking claim to suggest that we live in polarizing times. Social discourse has increasingly become a competition to shut down the other side. We seek out opinions that reinforce our worldview and recoil at anything that challenges it.
This has, of course, spilled into political dialogue. Too often, we stop seeing the humanity in our opponents and instead default to recriminations, name-calling, and all the familiar argumentative fallacies.
This is not new. As Massachusetts’ own Stephen Puleo documents in The Caning, this tension has long been part of our history. But just because it is part of our legacy does not mean it has to define our future.
We have the tools to do better.
We just need to invest in them.
Where It Starts
When I was in high school, I stumbled into speech and debate. I was not a natural public speaker. In fact, I feared it. But it seemed like something colleges would value, so I gave it a shot.
Over time, it unlocked something.
I began to learn how to think strategically, communicate clearly, listen actively, and engage with perspectives different from my own to find common ground. At the time, it felt like competition. Looking back, it was preparation.
From Competition to Preparation
That experience stays with you.
The skills developed through speech and debate do not just apply in academic settings. They shape how people think, communicate, and engage with the world.
That is why a $100,000 investment included in the Massachusetts State Senate’s supplemental budget for our client the National Speech & Debate Association matters.
It is not just about funding a program.
It is about expanding access to the kinds of skills that shape how people lead, work, and get along.
What Speech & Debate Actually Teaches
Speech and debate is often framed as public speaking. In reality, it teaches a set of skills that are increasingly essential:
Strategy
How to structure arguments, anticipate counterpoints, and think several steps ahead.
Communication
How to make complex ideas clear, persuasive, and accessible.
Empathy
How to understand and articulate perspectives beyond your own.
Active Listening
How to engage in real time and adapt when new information emerges.
These are not just academic skills. They are professional ones. They are social skills.
Why It Matters Now
That is especially true in the age of AI.
AI tools can summarize readings, generate essays, and produce arguments in seconds. The challenge for schools is no longer teaching access to information (although assessing quality remains). It is preserving independent thinking.
Critical thinking develops through effort: reading carefully, weighing evidence, forming claims, and defending ideas under pressure.
Speech and debate preserves that effort. Students must engage deeply, respond in real time, and adjust when confronted with stronger arguments. They cannot outsource reasoning.
It trains students not just to consume information, but to interrogate it.
A Workforce Issue, Not Just an Education Issue
Across industries, employers consistently point to the same gaps: communication, critical thinking, and collaboration.
Speech and debate develops all three.
This is not just an education investment. It is a workforce development strategy.
The Real Barrier: Access
The challenge has never been whether speech and debate works. That is settled.
The challenge is access.
Too many schools and communities across Massachusetts lack the resources to offer these programs. This funding begins to change that by helping expand coaching, training, and team development across the Commonwealth.
How This Came Together
Wins like this are not about a single conversation. They reflect a process grounded in the same principles speech and debate teaches:
Strategy
Aligning the request with broader legislative priorities.
Communication
Clearly articulating what the funding does and why it matters.
Empathy
Understanding what resonates with policymakers.
Active Listening
Adapting the message as the process evolves.
We are grateful to Senator Paul Feeney, Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, and the Massachusetts State Senate for including this in the supplemental budget as well as Representative Ted Phillips, House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz, and the Massachusetts House of Representatives for their leadership and support.
Why This Is Personal
On the same day the Senate adopted this funding, my son started speech and debate in his middle school.
That kind of opportunity should not be an accident of geography.
Looking Ahead
This $100,000 investment is a meaningful step, but it is also a starting point.
The opportunity now is to expand these programs further and ensure that more students across Massachusetts have access to them.
Because when students find their voice, they do not just change their own trajectory. They strengthen the Commonwealth as a whole.
Final Thought
Speech and debate does not just teach students how to speak.
It teaches them how to think, how to listen, and how to lead.
And that is an investment worth making.
