education debate topics 2021

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60 Debate Topics for High Schoolers

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What’s Covered:

What makes a good debate topic, good debate topics for teens.

• Where to Get Feedback on Your Debate Topics

Learning to view, think, and discuss ideas from contrasting viewpoints builds a host of skills that will benefit high schoolers both in and out of the classroom—including improving public speaking, reinforcing listening, and sharpening research. Good debate topics for high school students are key to lively discussion and an engaged classroom; they’re issues that students care about. 

A good debate topic for high school is one that inspires students to think and learn about both sides of the issue. There are a few factors to consider when searching for good debate topics for high school students.

• Clear Idea: A good debate topic clearly, simply, and specifically states an often complex idea that students can argue the affirmative (pro) side of and the negative (con) side of.
• Interest: The more interesting the topic is, the more engaged and excited students are to take positions and defend them. 
• Passion: Topics that students feel strongly about work well. If students are super-passionate about a particular issue, it can challenge them to see both sides of the argument. 
• Argument: Good debate topics do not have a clear “right” answer—rather, they have opposing views that participants can make persuasive arguments in favor of or against. 
• Evidence: The availability of evidence and data is key to a good debate topic; without them, participants are merely stating a personal position on a topic. 
• Avoid Cliches: There are a handful of topics that seem to always materialize for debates and can cause students to lose interest. 

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• Are the arts an important aspect of education? 
• Should we make financial education mandatory? 
• Should students attend school year-round? 
• Should schools punish students for bullying that occurs outside of school?
• Will computers replace teachers in the future?
• Should students grade their teachers?
• Should all high school sports become gender-neutral?
• Is a college education as valuable as it once was? 
• Are student loans exploitative? 
• Is it time to eliminate standardized tests? 

Science and Technology

• Is social media making us less social?
• Is Google the best search engine or just the one we’re accustomed to using? 
• Is Android better than iOS? 
• Will technology save the world or destroy it? 
• Can the law keep pace with technology?
• Is the future of school online?
• Will cryptocurrencies replace cash?   
• Is technology taking jobs or creating them? 
• Should every American have the right to access the internet? 
• Are electronic libraries more equitable than traditional ones? 

Government and Politics

• Should the government make vaccinations mandatory?
• Is it time for Supreme Court justices to have term limits? 
• Should we make voting mandatory?
• Should we make all drugs legal?
• Is it time to decriminalize sex work? 
• Is our privacy more important than national security?
• Is it fair to take the right to vote away from felons? 
• Should we raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour?
• Should the government provide universal basic income? 
• Is providing healthcare the job of the government?
• Can governments implement policies that will actually combat climate change?   
• Should we allow the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports?
• Should we remove racial epithets from books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ?
• Can the U.S. achieve gender equality?
• Is nationalism beneficial or dangerous? 
• Does religion do more harm than good?
• Should we bar police from using lethal force?
• Do we still need the institution of marriage? 
• Can the U.S. ever achieve racial equality?
• Are we living in a dystopian society?
• Should we punish or help drug addicts? 
• Is bad parenting responsible for the rise in childhood obesity?
• Should we sell birth control over the counter? 
• Is it time to ban cigarettes and vaping? 
• Are alternative medicines helpful or harmful?
• Should we ban businesses from advertising to children?
• Is the eight-hour workday outdated? 
• Should we treat corporations like people?
• Should corporations be involved in politics? 
• Is remote work the future of employment? 
• Is gaming a sport? 
• Are books a better entertainment option than television?
• Should social media companies censor content? 
• Is civil disobedience the most effective form of protest? 
• Should we ban football? 
• Should Black Friday sales start on Thanksgiving Day?
• What better determines success: skill or will?
• Should you feel guilty for killing zombies during the zombie apocalypse? 
• Should you choose pizza toppings based on taste or nutrition? 
• Are hot dogs sandwiches?

Where to Get Feedback on Your Debate Arguments 

A vital part of debate preparation is to test your arguments to ensure they specifically address the topic and collectively form a cohesive point. Make sure you consider both sides of the argument to better be prepared for a rebuttal.

Before stepping up to argue your side of the issue, test your argument on CollegeVine’s free peer review essay tool to get feedback for free from a peer!

As you get ready for college, it is important to understand how your extracurriculars, like debate, factor into your chances of acceptance. Check out our free chancing calculator to find the best-fit school for you.

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125 High School Debate Topics To Challenge Every Student

Learn how to argue with logic instead of emotion.

Some teachers shy away from debate in the classroom, afraid it will become too adversarial. But learning to discuss and defend various points of view is an important life skill. Debates teach students to research their topic, make informed choices, and argue effectively using facts instead of emotion. You’ll find plenty of engaging high school debate topics in this list for inspiration. Each topic includes a link to an article from a reliable source that provides pros and/or cons to help kids make their arguments.

School and Education Debate Topics

Life and ethics debate topics, entertainment and technology debate topics, fun and funny debate topics.

• It’s better to be good at academics than to be good at sports.
• Final exams should be abolished.
• Students should be required to wear school uniforms.
• Private schools are better than public schools.
• Year-round school is better for students.
• Standardized tests are effective.
• Every student should have to participate in athletics.
• All students should be required to volunteer in their community.
• Junk food should be banned in school cafeterias.
• Single-gender schools are better for students.
• Schools should be allowed to teach critical race theory.
• Math is the most important school subject.
• Schools should teach sex ed instead of abstinence only.
• Letter grades should be abolished.
• Teachers should be replaced by computers.
• People who get better grades in school will be more successful in life.
• Sometimes it’s OK to cheat on homework or a test.
• Students who fail a test should be given the chance to take it again.
• Outdoor recess is important at every grade level.
• Students should be allowed to grade teachers.
• Everyone should be able to bring their pets to school.
• Shorter school days are better for students.
• Schools should eliminate dress codes.
• Everyone should be required to go to college.
• College should be free for everyone who wants to attend.
• Schools should install safe rooms in case of mass shootings or natural disasters.
• Schools should be allowed to ban some books from their libraries.
• Book smarts are better than street smarts.
• Schools should provide free mental health services to students and teachers.
• Schools should teach life skills like cooking and personal finance.
• School vouchers benefit students and schools.
• Religion has no place in schools.
• In-person school is better than online school.
• Traditional school is better than homeschooling.
• Charter schools should receive public school funds.

• Girls face more peer pressure than boys.
• The voting age should be lowered to 16.
• Humans should not eat animals.
• Democracy is the best form of government.
• All Americans should be required to vote.
• Cigarette smoking and vaping should be banned entirely.
• Giving is better than receiving.
• Parents should be punished for their children’s mistakes.
• Animals should not be kept in zoos.
• Happiness is more important than success.
• The driving age should be raised to 18.
• The drinking age should be lowered to 18.
• Plastic bottles should be banned.
• People should have to take a parenting class before having a child.
• If you find money on the ground, it’s automatically yours to keep.
• It is better to be kind than to be truthful.
• Learning about history can stop us from repeating past mistakes.
• It’s important to spend money exploring space.
• White-collar jobs are better than blue-collar jobs.
• The death penalty should be abolished.
• Drug addicts should receive help instead of punishment.
• Euthanasia should be legal.
• GMOs are more helpful than harmful.
• Human cloning should be legal.
• A progressive income tax is better than a flat tax.
• Supreme Court judges should be appointed for fixed terms.
• Vaccines should be mandatory.
• We should ban fossil fuels.
• Marijuana should be legal everywhere.
• All drugs should be legalized, regulated, and taxed, like alcohol.
• Nuclear weapons should be banned worldwide.
• Police funding should be redirected to social services.
• Religion does more harm than good.
• Testing on animals should be illegal.
• We will never achieve world peace.
• The United States should implement a universal basic income.
• We should require people of all genders to register for the draft.
• Healthcare should be universal.
• Gun safety laws infringe on the Second Amendment.
• Anyone over 12 should be tried as an adult in court.

• Reality television depicts real life.
• Schools should allow students to use phones in class.
• Macs are better than PCs.
• Androids are better than iPhones.
• Social media is making us less social.
• Social media does more harm than good.
• Video games are better than board games.
• Video gaming is a sport.
• Reading books is better than watching TV.
• We should replace all paper documents with electronic versions.
• The book is always better than the movie.
• Parents should use their kids’ cell phones to track them.
• Playing video games makes you smarter.
• Scientists should try to develop a way for everyone to live forever.
• Paper books are better than e-books.
• Schools should have surveillance cameras in classrooms and hallways.
• All museums and zoos should be free to everyone.
• There is intelligent life on other planets.
• People rely too much on technology.
• Everyone should play on the same sports teams, regardless of gender.
• Net neutrality should be mandatory for internet service providers.
• Expanded use of artificial intelligence will be good for humanity.
• Technology is creating more jobs than it eliminates.
• The United States should provide free internet access for everyone.
• Cryptocurrencies should replace cash.

• Dogs are better pets than cats.
• A taco is a sandwich.
• Summer is better than winter.
• Coke is better than Pepsi.
• Pepperoni is the best pizza topping.
• Fruit counts as dessert.
• The number 13 is not unlucky.
• People should eat to live, not live to eat.
• Monday is the worst day of the week.
• Clowns are more scary than funny.
• Modern music is better than classical music.
• Aliens live among us here on Earth.
• It’s OK to put ketchup on a hot dog.
• Was Robin Hood a thief or a rebel hero?
• It would be better to be able to fly than to be able to turn invisible.
• Pluto should still be considered a planet.
• It’s better to be too hot than too cold.
• We should allow people to go barefoot anywhere if they want to.
• Fiction is better than non-fiction.
• Using profanity is good for your mental health.
• Leftover pizza is better cold than reheated.
• It’s OK to wear socks with sandals.
• Being famous is actually not all that great.
• GIF should be pronounced “JIFF” not “GIFF.”
• People shouldn’t have to go to school or work on their birthdays.

Did we miss one of your favorite high school debate topics? Then come share on the We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook !

Plus, how to use fishbowl discussions to engage every student ..

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Interested in suggesting a potential topic, learning about how topics are selected, or applying to be part of a topic wording committee? 

Current Topics

Lincoln-douglas.

A Note About the LD Topic Release Schedule: Each summer, the Lincoln-Douglas Wording Committee assigns a set of three topics to each bi-monthly topic cycle. All potential topics for the year are released the Monday following the conclusion of the National Tournament. In June, chapter advisors and member students will know, “These three topics will be voted on for September/October. These three topics will be voted on for November/December,” etc. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, chapter advisors and member students will vote on which of the three topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate – 2024 March/April Topic

• Resolved: The primary objective of the United States criminal justice system ought to be rehabilitation.

A total of 910 coaches and 3,285 students voted for the resolution. The winning resolution received 41% of the coach vote and 41% of the student vote.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate – 2024 National Tournament Topic

OPTION 1 – Resolved: In a democracy, a people ought to have the right to secede from their government.

OPTION 2 – Resolved: Democracies ought to have electoral gender quotas.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Novice Topic

Resolved: In the United States, national service ought to be mandatory.

Note: The novice Lincoln-Douglas topic is an optional topic that coaches and tournaments may choose to use each year in September/October, or the first two months of the novice season. The same topic is used each year and is created to be accessible to new debaters so that coaches can have a consistent, beginner-friendly topic to guide their novice LD curriculum using educational materials provided by the NSDA. Coaches are encouraged to check with tournament hosts in their area before exclusively prepping for one topic over another.   Access sample cases   on the mandatory national service topic.

Public Forum

A Note About the PF Topic Release Schedule: Each summer, the Public Forum Wording Committee assigns a set of two topics to each topic cycle. All potential topic areas and resolutions for the year are released the Monday following the conclusion of the National Tournament. In June, chapter advisors and member students will know, “These two topics will be voted on for September/October. These two topics will be voted on for November/December,” etc. One week prior to the topic being released for that topic cycle, chapter advisors and member students will vote on which of the two topics they prefer. The topic that receives the most votes will be the topic for that cycle. 

Public Forum Debate – 2024 April Topic

Public forum debate – 2024 national tournament topic.

OPTION 1 – Resolved: The United States should establish a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the European Union.

Policy Debate

Policy Debate – 2023-2024 Topic

Read a synopsis of the problem areas proposed for the 2023-2024 Policy Debate resolution.

Novice Case Limits for the 2023-2024 Policy Debate Topic

• Basic Income: Universal Basic Income
• Basic Income: Basic Income for Persons at or near the Poverty Level
• Federal Jobs Guarantee: Green New Deal
• Social Security: Medicare for All

Policy Debate – 2024-2025 Topic

Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

Read a synopsis of the problem areas proposed for the 2024-2025 Policy Debate resolution.

Visit the NFHS website for a complete map of how states voted as well as the press release .

Novice Case Limits for the 2024-2025 Policy Debate Topic

• Patents: Emerging Technologies
• Patents: Green Technology
• Copyrights: Protect the Creative Arts
• Trademarks: Trademark Trolls

Big Questions

Big Questions – 2023-2024 Topic

Resolved: Belief in the supernatural is incompatible with belief in science.

A total of 563 coaches and 1,557 students voted for the resolution. The winning resolution received 55% of the coach vote and 65% of the student vote.

Check out the   Big Questions Topic Papers   for an overview of the two topics proposed for the 2023-2024 season.

We invite you to incorporate issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion into your speech and debate activities. Explore our Extemp questions , Impromptu questions , and Congress legislation focused on these important topics.

Congress Legislation

A sample docket is provided monthly, on the first of the month.

Extemp Questions

Sample questions are provided monthly, on the first of the month.

World Schools Debate

Sample motions are provided monthly, on the first of the month

Potential Topics

Lincoln-douglas debate 2023-2024 potential topics.

The Lincoln-Douglas Wording Committee has developed a variety of potential resolutions for the 2023-2024 season. Member students and one chapter advisor per active school may vote for each topic one week prior to the topic release date. Topic voting for the September/October topic opens July 25, and the topic will be announced August 1.

2023 September/October

• Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing.
• Resolved: The United States ought to substantially increase the use of nuclear power to generate electricity.
• Resolved: The United States ought to establish a public option for banking.

2023 November/December

• Resolved: States ought to prohibit resource extraction within the Arctic Circle.
• Resolved: The United States ought to prohibit the extraction of fossil fuels from federal public lands and waters.
• Resolved: The United States federal government ought to implement a Social Wealth Fund.

2024 January/February

• Resolved: The United States federal government ought to substantially strengthen its obligation of trust responsibility toward Indigenous Nations.
• Resolved: The United States ought to recognize Iraqi Kurdistan.
• Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region.

2024 March/April

• Resolved: An inquisitorial justice system is preferable to an adversarial justice system.
• Resolved: In the United States, the use of eminent domain to promote private enterprise is unjust.

2024 National Tournament

• Resolved: In a democracy, a people ought to have the right to secede from their government.
• Resolved: Democracies ought to have electoral gender quotas.
• Resolved: In a democracy, non-citizen residents ought to have the right to vote in national elections.

Public Forum Debate 2023-2024 Potential Topics

The Public Forum Wording Committee has developed a variety of potential resolutions for the 2023-2024 season. Member students and one chapter advisor per active school may vote for each topic one week prior to the topic release date. Topic voting for the September/October topic opens July 25, and the topic will be announced August 1.

• Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its military presence in the Arctic.
• Resolved: The benefits of European Union enlargement outweigh the harms.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should forgive all federal student loan debt.
• Resolved: On balance, the benefits of school choice programs in the United States outweigh the harms.

2024 January

• Resolved: The United States federal government should repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
• Resolved: On balance, the benefits of the Chevron deference doctrine outweigh the harms.

2024 February

• Resolved: The Federative Republic of Brazil should prioritize its environmental protection over its economic development.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should ban single-use plastics.
• Resolved: In the United States, collegiate student-athletes should be classified as employees of their educational institution.
• Resolved: The United States federal government should restore the banking regulations of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010.
• Resolved: The Republic of Korea should develop nuclear weapons.
• Resolved: The United Nations should abolish permanent membership on its Security Council.
• Resolved: The United States should establish a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the European Union.
• Resolved: On balance, the benefits of the EU-Mercosur free trade deal outweigh the harms.

Past Topics

Past topics - big questions.

2022-2023 – Resolved: Humans are primarily driven by self-interest.

2021-2022 – Resolved: On balance, societies benefit from religious belief and practice.

2020-2021 – Resolved: Mathematics was discovered, not invented.

2019-2020 – Resolved: Objective morality exists.

2018-2019 – Resolved: Humans are primarily driven by self-interest.

Past Topics - Lincoln-Douglas Debate

• March/April – Resolved: The primary objective of the United States criminal justice system ought to be rehabilitation.
• January/February – Resolved: The United States ought to substantially reduce its military presence in the West Asia-North Africa region.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States ought to prohibit the extraction of fossil fuels from federal public lands and waters.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing.
• Nationals 2023 – Resolved: Government employees have a moral obligation to leak classified information to address injustice.
• March/April – Resolved: The justices of the Supreme Court of the United States ought to be term-limited.
• January/February – Resolved: Justice requires open borders for human migration.
• November/December – Resolved: The People’s Republic of China ought to prioritize environmental protection over economic growth.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States ought to implement a single-payer universal healthcare system.
• Nationals 2022 – Resolved: Radicalism is preferable to incrementalism to achieve social justice.
• March/April – Resolved: In a democracy, a free press ought to prioritize objectivity over advocacy.
• January/February – Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.
• November/December – Resolved: A just government ought to recognize an unconditional right of workers to strike.
• September/October – Resolved: The member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to reduce intellectual property protections for medicines.
• Nationals – Resolved: A public health emergency justifies limiting civil liberties.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal child care.
• January/February – Resolved: States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States ought to provide a federal jobs guarantee.
• September/October – Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory.
• Nationals – Resolved: The intergenerational accumulation of wealth is antithetical to democracy.
• March/April – Resolved: Predictive policing is unjust.
• January/February – Resolved: States ought to eliminate their nuclear arsenals.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States ought to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
• September/October – Resolved: In the United States, colleges and universities ought not consider standardized tests in undergraduate admissions decisions.
• Nationals – Resolved: Violent revolution is a just response to political oppression.
• March/April – Resolved: The illegal use of drugs ought to be treated as a matter of public health, not of criminal justice.
• January/February – Resolved: The United States ought not provide military aid to authoritarian regimes.
• November/December – Resolved: In a democracy, the public’s right to know ought to be valued above the right to privacy of candidates for public office.
• September/October – Resolved: In the United States, reporters ought to have the right to protect the identity of confidential sources.
• Nationals – Resolved: The United States’ use of targeted killing in foreign countries is unjust.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States ought to provide a universal basic income.
• January/February- Resolved: Plea bargaining ought to be abolished in the United States criminal justice system.
• November/December – Resolved: Wealthy nations have an obligation to provide development assistance to other nations.
• September/October – Resolved: In the United States, national service ought to be compulsory.
• Nationals – Resolved: A just government ought to prioritize civil liberties over national security.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing.
• January/February – Resolved: Public colleges and universities in the United States ought not restrict any constitutionally protected speech.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States ought to limit qualified immunity for police officers.
• September/October – Resolved: Countries ought to prohibit the production of nuclear power.
• 2016 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Immigration ought to be recognized as a human right.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States ought to promote democracy in the Middle East.
• January/February – Resolved: In the United States, private ownership of handguns ought to be banned.
• November/December – Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, jury nullification ought to be used in the face of perceived injustice.
• September/October – Resolved: Adolescents ought to have the right to make autonomous medical choices.
• 2015 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Inaction in the face of injustice makes individuals morally culpable.
• March/April – Resolved: Just governments ought to ensure food security for their citizens.
• January/February – Resolved: Just governments ought to require that employers pay a living wage.
• November/December – Resolved: The “right to be forgotten” from Internet searches ought to be a civil right.
• September/October – Resolved: A just society ought to presume consent for organ procurement from the deceased.
• 2014 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: The United States ought to prioritize the pursuit of national security objectives above the digital privacy of its citizens.
• March/April – Resolved: Placing political conditions on humanitarian aid to foreign countries is unjust.
• January/February – Resolved: Developing countries should prioritize environmental protection over resource extraction when the two are in conflict.
• November/December – Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, truth-seeking ought to take precedence over attorney-client privilege.
• 2013 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Oppressive government is more desirable than no government.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States is justified in intervening in the internal political processes of other countries to attempt to stop human rights abuses.
• January/February – Resolved: Rehabilitation ought to be valued above retribution in the United States criminal justice system.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal health care for its citizens.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States ought to extend to non-citizens accused of terrorism the same constitutional due process protections it grants to citizens.
• 2012 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: A government has the obligation to lessen the economic gap between its rich and poor citizens.
• March/April – Resolved: Targeted killing is a morally permissible foreign policy tool.
• January/February – Resolved: It is morally permissible for victims to use deadly force as a deliberate response to repeated domestic violence.
• November/December – Resolved: Individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need.
• September/October – Resolved: Justice requires the recognition of animal rights.
• 2011 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: When forced to choose, a just government ought to prioritize universal human rights over its national interest.
• March/April – Resolved: The United States is justified in using private military firms abroad to pursue its military objectives.
• January/February – Resolved: In the United States, juveniles charged with violent felonies ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system.
• November/December Topic – Resolved: The abuse of illegal drugs ought to be treated as a matter of public health, not of criminal justice.
• September/October – Resolved: States ought not possess nuclear weapons.
• 2010 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Compulsory inclusion of non-felons’ DNA in any government database is unjust.
• 2010 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: That the United States government has a moral obligation to afford the same constitutional rights to all people on United States soil.
• March/April – Resolved: In the United States, the principle of jury nullification is a just check on government.
• January/February – Resolved: Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.
• November/December – Resolved: Public health concerns justify compulsory immunization.
• September/October – Resolved: Public High school students in the United States ought not be required to pass standardized exit exams to graduate.
• 2009 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Military conscription is unjust.
• 2009 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: When in conflict, the preservation of minority cultural values ought to be valued above the preservation of a unified national culture.
• March/April – Resolved: Vigilantism is justified when the government has failed to enforce the law.
• January/February – Resolved: The United States ought to submit to the jurisdiction of an international court designed to prosecute crimes against humanity.
• November/December – Resolved: In a democratic society, felons ought to retain the right to vote.
• September/October – Resolved: It is morally permissible to kill one innocent person to save the lives of more innocent people.
• 2008 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Limiting economic inequality ought to be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom.
• 2008 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: That secondary education in America should value the fine arts over athletics.
• March/April – Resolved: Hate crime enhancements are unjust in the United States.
• January/February – Resolved: It is just for the United States to use military force to prevent the acquisition of nuclear weapons by nations that pose a military threat.
• November/December – Resolved: In the United States, plea-bargaining in exchange for testimony is unjust.
• September/October – Resolved: A just society ought not use the death penalty as a form of punishment.
• 2007 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: On balance, violent revolution is a just response to political oppression.
• 2007 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: That judicial activism is unjust in a democracy.
• March/April – Resolved: The United Nations’ obligation to protect global human rights ought to be valued above its obligation to respect national sovereignty.
• January/February – Resolved: The actions of corporations ought to be held to the same moral standards as the actions of individuals.
• November/December – Resolved: A victim’s deliberate use of deadly force is a just response to repeated domestic violence.
• September/October – Resolved: A just government should provide health care to its citizens.
• 2006 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: In matters of collecting military intelligence, the ends justify the means.
• 2006 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: When in conflict, an individual’s freedom of speech should be valued above a community’s moral standards.
• March/April – Resolved: Juveniles charged with violent crimes should be tried and punished as adults.
• January/February – Resolved: The use of the state’s power of eminent domain to promote private enterprise is unjust.
• November/December – Resolved: Judicial activism is necessary to protect the rights of American citizens.
• September/October – Resolved: In matters of U.S. immigration policy, restrictions on the rights of non-citizens are consistent with democratic ideals.
• 2005 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the pursuit of scientific knowledge ought to be constrained by concern for societal good.
• 2005 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: the primary purpose of formal education ought to be to impart knowledge.
• March/April – Resolved: to better protect civil liberties, community standards ought to take precedence over conflicting national standards.
• January/February – Resolved: democracy is best served by strict separation of church and state.
• November/December – Resolved: the United States has a moral obligation to promote democratic ideals in other nations.
• September/October – Resolved: individual claims of privacy ought to be valued above competing claims of societal welfare.
• 2004 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified.
• 2004 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: a nation’s citizens’ rights ought to take precedence over its security.
• March/April – Resolved: as a general principle, individuals have an obligation to value the common good above their own interests.
• January/February – Resolved: a government’s obligation to protect the environment ought to take precedence over its obligation to promote economic development.
• November/December – Resolved: the U.S. has a moral obligation to mitigate international conflicts.
• September/October – Resolved: in the U.S. judicial system, truth seeking ought to take precedence over privileged communication.
• 2003 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: rehabilitation ought to be valued above punishment in the U.S. criminal justice system.
• 2003 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: capitalism is the most just economic system.
• March/April – Resolved: when in conflict, the letter of the law ought to take priority over the spirit of the law.
• January/February – Resolved: when in conflict, globalization ought to be valued above national sovereignty.
• November/December – Resolved: when in conflict, academic freedom in U.S. high schools ought to be valued above community standards.
• September/October – Resolved: when the United States is engaged in military conflict, the demands of national security ought to supersede conflicting claims of individual rights.
• 2002 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: laws which protect citizens from themselves are justified.
• 2002 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: the people’s right to know outweighs the government’s need for confidentiality.
• March/April – Resolved: limiting the freedom of expression of adults is justified by society’s interest in protecting children.
• January/February – Resolved: oppressive government is more desirable than no government.
• November/December – Resolved: a lesser developed nation’s right to develop ought to take priority over its obligation to protect the environment.
• September/October – Resolved: decentralized governmental power ought to be a fundamental goal of democratic society.
• 2001 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: on balance, violent revolution is a just response to oppression.
• 2001 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: providing for basic human needs of citizens in a society ought to be valued above individual property rights.
• March/April – Resolved: the public’s right to know ought to be valued above the right to privacy of candidates for public office.
• January/February – Resolved: the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.
• November/December – Resolved: establishing a safe educational environment in grades K-12 justifies infringement of students’ civil liberties.
• September/October – Resolved: colleges and universities have a moral obligation to prohibit the public expression of hate speech on their campuses.
• 2000 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: inaction in the face of injustice makes an individual morally culpable.
• 2000 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: discriminations made by society on the basis of chronological age alone are justified.
• March/April – Resolved: the intervention of one nation in the domestic affairs of another nation is morally justified.
• January/February – Resolved: violent juvenile offenders ought to be treated as adults in the criminal justice system.
• November/December – Resolved: the use of economic sanctions to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals is moral.
• September/October – Resolved: when they conflict, respect for cultural sensitivity ought to be valued above the commercial use of free speech.
• 1999 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: capitalism is superior to socialism as a means of achieving economic justice.
• 1999 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: the objectives of democracy are best fulfilled through a separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers.
• March/April – Resolved: human genetic engineering is morally justified.
• January/February – Resolved: in the United States, a journalist’s right to shield confidential sources ought to be protected by the First Amendment.
• November/December – Resolved: capital punishment is justified.
• September/October – Resolved: the individual ought to value the sanctity of life above the quality of life.
• 1998 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: in the United States’ justice system, due process ought to be valued above the pursuit of truth when they are in conflict.
• 1998 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: individuals ought to sacrifice their ideals for the sake of compromise.
• March/April – Resolved: civil disobedience is justified in a democracy.
• January/February – Resolved: a just social order ought to place the principle of equality above that of liberty.
• November/December – Resolved: an adolescent’s right to privacy ought to be valued above a parent’s conflicting right to know.
• September/October – Resolved: global concerns ought to be valued above conflicting national concerns.
• 1997 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the public’s right to know is of greater value than the individual’s right to privacy.
• March/April – Resolved: on balance, individuals ought to have a greater obligation to themselves than to their community.
• January/February – Resolved: in United States policy, the principle of universal human rights ought to take precedence over conflicting national interest.
• November/December – Resolved: when they are in conflict, a business’ responsibility to itself ought to be valued above its responsibility to society.
• September/October – Resolved: when in conflict, society’s goal of eliminating discrimination ought to transcend an individual’s right to participate in exclusive, voluntary associations.
• 1996 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That limiting constitutional freedoms is a just response to terrorism in the United States.
• March/April – Resolved: when in conflict, American cultural unity ought to be valued above cultural diversity.
• January/February – Resolved: an oppressive government is more desirable than no government.
• November/December – Resolved: the pursuit of feminist ideals is detrimental to the achievement of gender equality.
• September/October – Resolved: individuals with disabilities ought to be afforded the same athletic competition opportunities as able-bodied athletes.
• 1995 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: when in conflict, the safety of others is of greater value than the right to privacy of those with infectious diseases.
• March/April – Resolved: on balance, institutional censorship of academic material is harmful to the educational development of the students.
• January/February – Resolved: laws which protect citizens from themselves are justified.
• November/December – Resolved: when in conflict, community standards are of greater value than individual liberty.
• September/October – Resolved: an individual’s freedom of expression is of greater value than political correctness.
• 1994 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: when in conflict, protection of the innocent is of greater value than prosecution of the guilty.
• March/April – Resolved: terminally ill patients have the right to die when and how they choose.
• January/February – Resolved: when called upon by one’s government, individuals are morally obligated to risk their lives for their country.
• November/December – Resolved: the public’s right to know is of greater value than the right to privacy of candidates for public office.
• September/October – Resolved: secondary education in the United States ought to be a privilege, not a right.
• 1993 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the protection of domestic order justifies the curtailment of First Amendment rights.
• March/April – Resolved: the principle of majority rule ought to be valued above the principle of minority rights.
• January/February – Resolved: when in conflict, the spirit of the law ought to take priority over the letter of the law.
• November/December – Resolved: in the criminal justice system, truth seeking ought to take precedence over privileged communication.
• September/October – Resolved: the U.S. military interference in the internal affairs of other countries is justified.
• 1992 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the United States government ought to provide for the medical care of its citizens.
• March/April – Resolved: the possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.
• January/February – Resolved: a victim’s deliberate use of deadly force is justified as a response to physical abuse.
• November/December – Resolved: human genetic engineering is morally justified.
• September/October – Resolved: a liberal arts curriculum is preferable to an employment-readiness curriculum in U.S. secondary schools.
• 1991 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: members of the United States Congress ought to value the national interest above constituent’s interests when the two are in conflict.
• March/April – Resolved: the pursuit of scientific knowledge ought to be limited by a concern for societal good.
• January/February – Resolved: showing disrespect for the American flag is antithetical to fundamental American values.
• November/December – Resolved: government limits on the individual’s right to bear arms in the United States are justified.
• September/October – Resolved: competition is superior to cooperation as a means of achieving excellence.
• 1990 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: individual obedience to law plays a greater role in maintaining ethical public service than does individual obedience to conscience.
• March/April – Resolved: development of natural resources ought to be valued above protection of the environment.
• January/February – Resolved: communities in the United States ought to have the right to suppress pornography.
• November/December – Resolved: all United States citizens ought to perform a period of national service.
• September/October – Resolved: that the United States ought to value global concerns above its own national concerns.
• 1989 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the American criminal justice system ought to place a higher priority on retribution than on rehabilitation.
• March/April – Resolved: the public’s right to know ought to be valued above U.S. national security interests.
• January/February – Resolved: limitations upon the content of student publications by secondary school administrators are justified.
• November/December – Resolved: affirmative action programs to remedy the effects of discrimination are justified.
• 1988 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: violent revolution is a just response to oppression.
• March/April/May – Resolved: when they are in conflict, the principle of privileged communication ought to be subordinate to the maintenance of law and order.
• December/January/February – Resolved: the protection of society’s health interest through broad based mandatory testing of AIDS ought to be more important than personal privacy rights.
• September/October/November – Resolved: the protection of public safety justifies random, mandatory drug testing throughout society.
• 1987 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: when they are in conflict, the right to a free press is a higher priority than the right to a fair trial.
• March/April – Resolved: a parliamentary system of government would better fulfill the values underlying the American Constitution.
• January/February – Resolved: That decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court in criminal cases ought to reflect the values of the American people.
• November/December – Resolved: an unjust government is better than no government at all.
• 1986 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: giving sanctuary to illegal refugees in the United States justifiably places moral law above positive law.
• March/April – Resolved: allowing innocent people to be harmed is preferable than giving into terrorists’ demands.
• January/February – Resolved: the restriction of civil liberties in the United States for the sake of combating terrorism is justified.
• November/December – Resolved: the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations.
• September/October – Resolved: the use of sanctions to achieve U.S. foreign policy goals ought to be immoral.
• 1985 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the American media works against the best interest of the American public.
• March/April – Resolved: a just social order ought to place the principle of equality above that of liberty.
• January/February – Resolved: nothing is politically right that is morally wrong.
• Resolved: U.S. immigration policy is inconsistent with American ideals.
• 1984 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: uniformity in education leads to mediocrity.
• January/February – Resolved: even in a democratic society morality can be legislated.
• 1983 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Liberty is more precious than law.
• March/April – Resolved: protection of the environment should take precedence over the development of natural resources.
• January/February – Resolved: funding for human services programs should take precedence over a balanced budget.
• Resolved: the right to a free press outweighs the right to a fair trial.
• Resolved: the right to die takes precedence over other ethical and moral considerations.
• 1982 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: the economic health of a nation is more important than the social programs for its citizens.
• March/April – Resolved: it is undesirable to expend societal resources on the enforcement of laws against victimless crimes.
• January/February – Resolved: the rights of the victim should take precedence over the rights of the accused in felony cases.
• 1981 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the protection of human rights should have a higher priority in shaping America’s foreign policy.
• March/April – Resolved: military conscription is a superior alternative to a voluntary army.
• January/February – Resolved: it is morally unjustifiable to require an individual to join a labor organization as a condition of employment.
• 1980 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: The strength of the present methods of funding the social security system outweighs the weaknesses.

Past Topics - Public Forum Debate

• April – Resolved: The United Nations should abolish permanent membership on its Security Council.
• March – Resolved: In the United States, collegiate student-athletes should be classified as employees of their educational institution.
• February – Resolved: The United States federal government should ban single-use plastics.
• January – Resolved: The United States federal government should repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States federal government should forgive all federal student loan debt.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its military presence in the Arctic.
• Nationals 2023 – Resolved: The United States should adopt ranked-choice voting for its federal elections.
• April – Resolved: The United States Federal Government should ban the collection of personal data through biometric recognition technology.
• March – Resolved: The Republic of India should sign the Artemis Accords.
• February – Resolved: In the United States, right-to-work laws do more harm than good.
• January – Resolved: The United States Federal Government should increase its diplomatic efforts to peacefully resolve internal armed conflicts in West Asia.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States’ strategy of Great Power Competition produces more benefits than harms.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its investment in high-speed rail.
• Nationals 2022 – Resolved: The United States should establish a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with Taiwan.
• April – Resolved: Japan should revise Article 9 of its Constitution to develop offensive military capabilities.
• March – Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of increasing organic agriculture outweigh the harms.
• February – Resolved: On balance, Turkey’s membership is beneficial to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
• January – Resolved: The United States federal government should legalize all illicit drugs.
• November/December – Resolved: Increased United States federal regulation of cryptocurrency transactions and/or assets will produce more benefits than harms.
• September/October – Resolved: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should substantially increase its defense commitments to the Baltic states.
• Nationals 2021 – Resolved: In the United States, social media is beneficial for democratic values.
• April – Resolved: The benefits of the International Monetary Fund outweigh the harms.
• March – Resolved: On balance, the benefits of creating the United States Space Force outweigh the harms.
• February – Resolved: On balance, the benefits of urbanization in West Africa outweigh the harms.
• January – Resolved: The National Security Agency should end its surveillance of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
• November/December – Resolved: The United States should adopt a declaratory nuclear policy of no first use.
• September/October – Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019.
• Nationals 2020 – Resolved: On balance, charter schools are beneficial to the quality of education in the United States.
• April 2020 – Resolved: The United States should remove nearly all of its military presence in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf.
• March 2020 – Resolved: The United States should increase its use of nuclear energy for commercial energy production.
• February 2020 – Resolved: The United States should replace means-tested welfare programs with a universal basic income.
• January 2020 – Resolved: The United States should end its economic sanctions against Venezuela.
• November/December 2019 – Resolved: The benefits of the United States federal government’s use of offensive cyber operations outweigh the harms.
• September/October 2019 – Resolved: The European Union should join the Belt and Road Initiative.
• Nationals 2019 – Resolved: The United States federal government should enforce antitrust regulations on technology giants.
• April 2019 – Resolved: The United Nations should grant India permanent membership on the Security Council.
• March 2019 – Resolved: The United States should promote the development of market rate housing in urban neighborhoods.
• February 2019 – Resolved: The United States should end its arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
• January 2019 – Resolved: The United States federal government should prioritize reducing the federal debt over promoting economic growth.
• November/December 2018 – Resolved: The United States federal government should impose price controls on the pharmaceutical industry.
• September/October 2018 – Resolved: The United States should accede to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea without reservations.
• Nationals 2018 – Resolved: On balance, the benefits of United States participation in the North American Free Trade Agreement outweigh the consequences.
• April 2018 – Resolved: The United States federal government should increase its quota of H-1B visas.
• March 2018 – Resolved: On balance, the current Authorization for Use of Military Force gives too much power to the president.
• February 2018 – Resolved: The United States should abolish the capital gains tax.
• January 2018 – Resolved: Spain should grant Catalonia its independence.
• December 2017 – Resolved: NCAA student athletes ought to be recognized as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• November 2017 – Resolved: The United States should require universal background checks for all gun sales and transfers of ownership.
• September/October 2017 – Resolved: Deployment of anti-missile systems is in South Korea’s best interest.
• Nationals 2017 – Resolved: In East Africa, the United States federal government should prioritize its counterterrorism efforts over its humanitarian assistance.
• April 2017 – Resolved: The United States ought to replace the Electoral College with a direct national popular vote.
• March 2017 – Resolved: The United States should no longer pressure Israel to work toward a two-state solution.
• February 2017 – Resolved: The United States should lift its embargo against Cuba.
• January 2017 – Resolved: In order to better respond to international conflicts, the United States should significantly increase its military spending.
• December 2016 – Resolved: The United States should end Plan Colombia.
• November 2016 – Resolved: On balance, the benefits of the Internet of Things outweigh the harms of decreased personal privacy.
• September/October 2016 – Resolved: In United States public K-12 schools, the probable cause standard ought to apply to searches of students.
• 2016 National Speech & Debate Tournament – On balance, a one-day national primary would be more beneficial for the United States than our current presidential primary process.
• April 2016 – Resolved: To alleviate income inequality in the United States, increased spending on public infrastructure should be prioritized over increased spending on means-tested welfare programs.
• March 2016 – Resolved: The United States should withdraw its military presence from Okinawa.
• February 2016 – Resolved: The United States federal government should adopt a carbon tax.
• January 2016 – Resolved: On balance, economic sanctions are reducing the threat Russia poses to Western interests.
• December 2015 – Resolved: On balance, standardized testing is beneficial to K-12 education in the United States.
• November 2015 – Resolved: In response to the current crisis, a government should prioritize the humanitarian needs of refugees over its national interests.
• September/October 2015 – Resolved: The United States Federal Government ought to pay reparations to African Americans.
• 2015 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: The benefits of First Amendment protection of anonymous speech outweigh the harms.
• April 2015 – Resolved: Committing United States ground combat troops to fight ISIL is in the best interest of the United States.
• March 2015 – Resolved: In the United States, students should be guaranteed two years of free tuition to a community or technical college.
• February 2015 – Resolved: On balance, economic globalization benefits worldwide poverty reduction.
• January 2015 – Resolved: United Nations peacekeepers should have the power to engage in offensive operations.
• December 2014 – Resolved: For-profit prisons in the United States should be banned.
• November 2014 – Resolved: On balance, the benefits of genetically modified foods outweigh the harms.
• September/October 2014 – Resolved: On balance, public subsidies for professional athletic organizations in the United States benefit their local communities.
• 2014 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: NATO should strengthen its relationship with Ukraine in order to deter further Russian aggression.
• April 2014 – Resolved: Prioritizing economic development over environmental protection is in the best interest of the people of India.
• March 2014 – Resolved: Single-gender classrooms would improve the quality of education in American public schools.
• February 2014 – Resolved: The Supreme Court rightly decided that Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act violated the Constitution.
• January 2014 – Resolved: Development assistance should be prioritized over military aid in the Sahel region of Africa.
• December 2013 – Resolved: Immigration reform should include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.
• November 2013 – Resolved: The benefits of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency outweigh the harms.
• September/October 2013 – Resolved: Unilateral military force by the United States is justified to prevent nuclear proliferation.
• 2013 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: The benefits of American drone strikes against foreign targets outweigh the harms.
• April 2013 – Resolved: The continuation of current U.S. anti-drug policies in Latin America will do more harm than good.
• March 2013 – Resolved: The U.S. government should not require its citizens to have health insurance.
• February 2013 – Resolved: On balance, the rise of China is beneficial to the interests of the United States.
• January 2013 – Resolved: On balance, the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission harms the election process.
• December 2012 – Resolved: The United States should prioritize tax increases over spending cuts.
• November 2012 – Resolved – Current U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East undermines our national security.
• October 2012 – Resolved: Developed countries have a moral obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change.
• September 2012 – Resolved: Congress should renew the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.
• 2012 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Stand Your Ground laws are a legitimate expansion of the doctrine of self defense.
• April 2012 – Resolved: State mandated administration of childhood vaccinations is justified.
• March 2012 – Resolved: The United States should suspend all assistance to Pakistan.
• February 2012 – Resolved: Birthright citizenship should be abolished in the United States.
• January 2012 – Resolved: The costs of a college education outweigh the benefits.
• December 2011 – Resolved: In the United States, current income disparities threaten democratic ideals.
• November 2011 – Resolved: Direct popular vote should replace electoral vote in presidential elections.
• October 2011 – Resolved: Private sector investment in human space exploration is preferable to public sector investment.
• September 2011 – Resolved: The benefits of post-9/11 security measures outweigh the harms to personal freedom.
• 2011 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the United States should intervene in another nation’s struggle for democracy.
• April 2011 – Resolved: The United States federal government should permit the use of financial incentives to encourage organ donation.
• March 2011 – Resolved: North Korea poses a more serious threat to United States national security than Iran.
• February 2011 – Resolved: Wikileaks is a threat to United States national security.
• January 2011 – Resolved: In the United States, plea bargaining undermines the criminal justice system.
• December 2010 – Resolved: Cyberbullying should be a criminal offense.
• November 2010 – Resolved: High school Public Forum Debate resolutions should not confront sensitive religious issues.
• October 2010 – Resolved: NATO presence improves the lives of Afghan citizens.
• September 2010 – Resolved: Allowing deep water offshore oil drilling is in the best interest of the United States.
• 2010 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: Current trends in American political dialogue compromise meaningful democratic deliberation.
• 2010 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: That the constitutional right of freedom of religion has wrongly evolved into freedom from religion.
• April 2010 – Resolved: On balance, government employee labor unions have a positive impact on the United States.
• March 2010 – Resolved: Affirmative action to promote equal opportunity in the United States is justified.
• February 2010 – Resolved: In the United States, organized political lobbying does more harm than good.
• January 2010 – Resolved: President Obama’s plan for increasing troops in Afghanistan is in the United States’ best interest.
• December 2009 – Resolved: That merit pay based on student achievement should be a significant component of K-12 teacher compensation in United States public schools.
• November 2009 – Resolved: Failed nations are a greater threat to the United States than stable nations.
• October 2009 – Resolved: When in conflict, the United Nations should prioritize global poverty reduction over environmental protection.
• September 2009 – Resolved: United States policy on illegal immigration should focus on attrition through enforcement rather than amnesty.
• 2009 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the United States should normalize relations with Cuba.
• 2009 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: A society has an obligation to ensure adequate health care for its citizens.
• April 2009 – Resolved: That the Employee Free Choice Act of 2009 serves the best interest of the American people.
• March 2009 – Resolved: That, on balance, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has improved academic achievement in the United States.
• February 2009 – Resolved: That, on balance, the rise of Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) has had a positive impact on the United States.
• January 2009 – Resolved: That, by 2040, the federal government should mandate that all new passenger vehicles and light trucks sold in the United States be powered by alternative fuels.
• December 2008 – Resolved: That, on balance, social networking Web sites have a positive impact on the United States.
• November 2008 – Resolved: That the United States government should implement universal health care modeled after the French system.
• October 2008 – Resolved: The United States should significantly increase its use of nuclear energy.
• September 2008 – Resolved: That the United States should implement a military draft.
• 2008 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: US policies established after September 11, 2001 have substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States.
• 2008 NCFL° Nationals – Resolved: That the US Government should increase social services for indigenous peoples in America.
• April 2008 – Resolved: That the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 will successfully mitigate economic slowdowns over the next year.
• March 2008 – Resolved: The US system of presidential primaries is contrary to democratic values.
• February 2008 – Resolved: That Russia has become a threat to U.S. interests.
• January 2008 – Resolved: In a democracy, civil disobedience is an appropriate weapon in the fight for justice.
• December 2007 – Resolved:That the United States would be justified in pursuing military options against Iran.
• November 2007 – Resolved: That eliminating United States government budget deficits should be prioritized over increasing domestic spending.
• October 2007 – Resolved: That the United States should encourage the implementation of a soft partition of Iraq.
• September 2007 – Resolved: That the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated.
• 2007 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the private ownership of handguns should be banned in the United States.
• 2007 NCFL Nationals° – Resolved: That the President and Vice-President of the United States should be elected by a direct vote of the American citizens.
• April 2007 – Resolved: United States corporations should honor all prior commitments to employee pensions.
• March 2007 – Resolved: That the quantity of credit available to American consumers should be significantly reduced.
• February 2007 – Resolved: The costs of legalized casino gambling in the United States outweigh the benefits.
• January 2007 – Resolved: That lobbyists negatively influence the legislative process in the United States.
• December 2006 – Resolved: Colleges and Universities in the United States should end their early admission programs.
• November 2006 – Resolved: That participating in multinational diplomatic efforts is beneficial to U. S. interests.
• October 2006 – Resolved: Current immigration laws in the United States should be enforced.
• September 2006 – Resolved: That the benefits of NASA’s space exploration programs justify the costs.
• 2006 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the United States government should ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
• April 2006 – Resolved: That the American media work against the best interest of the American public.
• March 2006 – Resolved: That big box retailers benefit the communities in which they are located.
• February 2006 – Resolved: That the policy decisions of the current Israeli government toward the Palestinian state have improved prospects for peace in the Middle East.
• January 2006 – Resolved: In the United States, public high school science curriculum should include the study of the Theory of Intelligent Design.
• December 2005 – Resolved: That the National Basketball Association (NBA) should rescind its dress code.
• November 2005 – Resolved: That the United States federal government should fund Hurricane Katrina relief and rebuilding by ending President Bush’s tax cuts.
• October 2005 – Resolved: That the United Nations should be the primary agent to lead and direct the fight against terrorism around the world.
• September 2005 – Resolved: In the United States, colleges and universities should be permitted to pay stipends to their Division I athletes.
• 2005 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That, when a choice is required for public high schools in the United States, government funding should prioritize vocational education over college preparatory education.
• April 2005 – Resolved: The United States should issue guest worker visas to illegal aliens.
• March 2005 – Resolved: Student aptitude should be assessed through standardized testing.
• February 2005 – Resolved: In the United States, the current system of federal income taxation should be replaced by a flat rate income tax.
• January 2005 – Resolved: The United States Constitution should be amended to establish a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court Justices.
• December 2004 – Resolved: Corporate offshoring aids in the economic development of the United States.
• November 2004 – Resolved: The United States government should allow Americans to purchase prescription drugs from other countries.
• October 2004 – Resolved: In the United States, public opinion polls positively affect the election process.
• September 2004 – Resolved: That he United States should establish a cabinet-level position to oversee its entire intelligence community.
• 2004 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: All young adults in every nation should be required to perform at least one full year of national service.
• April 2004 – Resolved: English should be the official national language of the United States.
• March 2004 – Resolved: The United States should provide universal health care insurance to all U.S. citizens.
• February 2004 – Resolved: Americans should be allowed to share copyrighted media over the internet.
• January 2004 – Resolved: The United States is losing the War on Terror.
• December 2003 – Resolved: Congress should repeal the No Child Left Behind Act.
• November 2003 – Resolved: That Federal judges should be elected in their district for a limited term rather than appointed by the President for a life term.
• October 2003 – Resolved: That the United States should comply with United Nations’ decisions concerning international peacekeeping operations.
• September 2003 – Resolved: Use of a cell phone should be prohibited while operating a motor vehicle.
• 2003 National Speech & Debate Tournament – Resolved: That the United States should assume primary responsibility for the rebuilding of Iraq.
• April 2003 – Resolved: Awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases should be limited to $250,000.
• March 2003 – Resolved: Affirmative action should not be practiced in college and university admission.
• February 2003 – Resolved: The death penalty should be abolished in America.
• January 2003 – Resolved: The Federal Government should authorize oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve.
• December 2002 – Resolved: The the “Bush” tax cuts should be made permanent.
• October/November 2002 – Resolved: Commercial airline pilots should be armed in the cockpit.

Past Topics - Policy Debate

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.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its funding and/or regulation of elementary and/or secondary education in the United States.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic and/or diplomatic engagement with the People’s Republic of China.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its non-military exploration and/or development of the Earth’s oceans.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic engagement toward Cuba, Mexico or Venezuela.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its transportation infrastructure investment in the United States.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond the Earth’s mesosphere.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for persons living in poverty in the United States.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase alternative energy incentives in the United States.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its public health assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Resolved: The United States federal government should establish a policy substantially increasing the number of persons serving in one or more of the following national service programs: AmeriCorps, Citizen Corps, Senior Corps, Peace Corps, Learn and Serve America, Armed Forces.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially decrease its authority either to detain without charge or to search without probable cause.

Resolved: That the United States federal government should establish a foreign policy substantially increasing its support of United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Resolved: That the United States federal government should establish an ocean policy substantially increasing protection of marine natural resources.

Resolved: That the United States federal government should substantially increase public health services for mental health care in the United States.

Resolved: That the United States federal government should establish a foreign policy significantly limiting the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Resolved: That the United States federal government should significantly increase protection of privacy in the United States in one or more of the following areas: employment, medical records, consumer information, search and seizure.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish an education policy to significantly increase academic achievement in secondary schools in the United States.

Resolved: That the United States should substantially change its foreign policy toward Russia.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish a policy to substantially increase renewable energy use in the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish a program to substantially reduce juvenile crime in the United States.

Resolved: That the United States government should substantially change its foreign policy toward the People’s Republic of China.

Resolved: That the United States government should substantially strengthen regulation of immigration to the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should guarantee comprehensive national health insurance to all United States citizens.

Resolved: That the United States government should reduce worldwide pollution through its trade and/or aid policies.

Resolved: That the federal government should significantly increase social services to homeless individuals in the United States.

Resolved: that the United States Government should significantly increase space exploration beyond Earth’s mesosphere.

Resolved: That the federal government should adopt a nationwide policy to decrease overcrowding in prisons and jails in the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should implement a comprehensive program to guarantee retirement security for United States citizens over age 65.

Resolved: That the United States government should adopt a policy to increase political stability in Latin America.

Resolved: That the federal government should implement a comprehensive long-term agricultural policy in the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish a comprehensive national policy to protect the quality of water in the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should provide employment for all employable U.S. Citizens living in poverty.

Resolved: That the United States should establish uniform rules governing the procedure of all criminal courts in the nation.

Resolved: That the United States should significantly curtail its arms sales to other countries.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish minimum educational standards for elementary and secondary schools in the United States.

Resolved: That the federal government should initiate and enforce safety guarantees on consumer goods.

Resolved: That the United States should significantly change its foreign trade policies.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish a comprehensive program to significantly increase the energy independence of the U.S.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish a comprehensive program to regulate the health care in the United States.

Resolved: That a comprehensive program of penal reform should be adopted throughout the United States.

Resolved: That the development and allocation of scarce world resources should be controlled by an international organization.

Resolved: That the United States should significantly change the method of selection of presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Resolved: That the federal government should guarantee a minimum annual income to each family unit.

Resolved: That governmental financial support for all public and secondary education in the United States be provided exclusively by the federal government.

Resolved: That the jury system in the United States should be significantly changed.

Resolved: That the federal government should establish, finance, and administer programs to control air and/or water pollution in the United States.

Resolved: That Congress should prohibit unilateral United States military intervention in foreign countries.

Resolved: That the United States should establish a system of compulsory service by all citizens.

Resolved: That Congress should establish uniform regulations to control criminal investigation procedures.

Resolved: That the foreign aid program of the United States should be limited to non-military assistance.

Resolved: That the federal government should adopt a program of compulsory arbitration in labor-management disputes in basic industries.

Resolved: That nuclear weapons should be controlled by an international organization.

Resolved: That Social Security benefits should be extended to include complete medical care.

Resolved: That the United States should promote a Common Market for the western hemisphere.

Resolved: That the federal government should equalize educational opportunity by means of grants to the states for public elementary and secondary education.

Resolved: That the United Nations should be significantly strengthened.

Resolved: That the federal government should substantially increase its regulation of labor unions.

Resolved: That the United States should adopt the essential feature of the British system of education.

Resolved: That the United States foreign aid should be substantially increased.

Resolved: That the federal government should sustain the prices of major agricultural products at not less than 90% of parity.

Resolved: That the government subsidies should be granted according to need to high school graduates who qualify for additional training.

Resolved: That the federal government should initiate a policy of free trade among nations friendly to the United States.

Resolved: That the President of the United States should be elected by the direct vote of the people.

Resolved: That the Atlantic pact nations should form a federal union.

Resolved: That all American citizens should be subject to conscription for essential service in time of war.

Resolved: That the American people should reject the Welfare state.

Resolved: That a federal world government should be established.

Resolved: That the federal government should require arbitration of labor disputes in all basic industries.

Resolved: That the federal government should provide a system of complete Medical care available to all citizens at public expense.

Resolved: That ever able-bodied male citizen of the United States should have one year of full time military training before attaining age 24.

Resolved: That the legal voting age should be reduced to eighteen years.

Resolved: That the United States should join in reconstituting the League of Nations.

Resolved: That every able-bodied male citizen in the United States should be required to have one year of full-time military training before attaining the present draft age.

Resolved: That the power of the federal government should be increased.

Resolved: That the federal government should own and operate the railroads.

Resolved: That the United States should establish an alliance with Great Britain.

Resolved: That the several states should adopt a unicameral system of legislation.

Resolved: That all electric utilities should be governmentally owned and operated.

Resolved: That the several states should enact legislation providing for a system of complete medical service available to all citizens at public expense.

Resolved: That the federal government should adopt the policy of equalizing educational opportunity throughout the nation by means of annual grants to the several states for public elementary and secondary education.

Resolved: That the United States should adopt the essential features of the British system of radio control and operation.

Resolved: That at least one half of all state and local revenues should be derived from sources other than tangible property.

Resolved: That the several states should enact legislation providing for compulsory unemployment insurance.

Resolved: That chain stores are detrimental to the best interests of the American public.

Resolved: That installment buying of personal property as now practiced in the United States is both socially and economically desirable.

Resolved: That the English cabinet method of legislation is more efficient than the committee system is in the United States.

Topic Release Schedule

Topic release schedule - lincoln-douglas debate.

If you would like to submit an LD resolution for consideration, please submit by April 1 for the following school year.

In addition, we have established a separate LD resolution for the first two months of the novice season. Coaches are encouraged to check with tournament hosts in their area before exclusively prepping for one topic over another.

Topic Release Schedule - Public Forum Debate

If you would like to submit a PF topic area or resolution for consideration, please submit by April 1 for the following school year.

The first two Public Forum topics are two-month topics in September/October and November/December, and then it reverts to a month-to-month topic. This schedule benefits novices who have more time to learn and improve their skills without switching topics.

Topic Release Schedule - Policy Debate

Topic release schedule - big questions debate, topic release schedule - congressional debate.

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100 High School Debate Topics To Engage Every Student

We Are Teachers Jill Staake  on November 23, 2021

Learning to debate well is an important life skill, so don’t avoid it in your classroom because it feels too adversarial. Debates teach students to research their topic, make informed choices, and argue effectively using facts instead of emotion. First, try fun or funny high school debate topics that give students a chance to learn the format. Then move on to more complex and even controversial high school debate topics. You’ll find plenty of engaging ideas in this list for inspiration.

Resource Link:  https://www.weareteachers.com/high-school-debate-topics/

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100 great education debate topics, bob cardens.

• September 2, 2022
• Essay Topics and Ideas

Education Debate Topics and Ideas to get you started. It can be difficult to choose an education debate topic that is both interesting and relevant, but this list of 100 education debate topics should help get you started!

Education debates can cover a wide range of topics, from early childhood education all the way to the college level. Whether you are looking for debate topics for a class or for a public forum, there is sure to be an education debate topic on this list that interests you!

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What You'll Learn

Education Debate Topics

• Is homeschooling a viable option for all children?
• Are charter schools better than public schools?
• Should school uniforms be mandatory in all schools?
• Are private schools better than public schools?
• Should colleges and universities be free to attend?
• Is online education as effective as traditional classroom education?
• Are standardized tests an accurate measure of a student’s knowledge?
• Should the No Child Left Behind Act be reformed or repealed?
• Is year-round schooling a good idea?
• Are charter schools unfairly funded?
• Do charter schools create a two-tiered education system?
• Are private schools creating a classist society?
• Do standardized tests put too much pressure on students?
• Should the Common Core State Standards be adopted by all states?
• Is the Education Savings Account program a good way to fund education?
• Should the government get out of the business of funding education altogether?
• Is sex education a necessary part of the public school curriculum?
• Should creationism be taught in public schools?
• Should evolution be taught in public schools?
• What role should religion play in public schools?
• Are for-profit colleges and universities bad for students?
• Is college tuition too high?
• Should student loan debt be forgiven?
• Are online courses as good as traditional courses?
• Is tenure a good thing or a bad thing for educators?
• Should teachers be armed in the classroom?
• Is corporal punishment an effective form of discipline?
• Are charter schools held to different standards than public schools?
• Do private schools have an unfair advantage in college admissions?
• Should affirmative action be banned in college admissions?
• Is the current system of college admissions fair?
• Should standardized test scores be a factor in college admissions decisions?
• Should colleges and universities consider race or ethnicity in their admissions decisions?
• Should legacy preferences be eliminated from the college admissions process?
• Do for-profit colleges and universities take advantage of students?
• Should the federal government do more to regulate for-profit colleges and universities?
• Is distance learning a good option for all students?
• Do homeschooled students have an unfair advantage in college admissions?
• Should the government provide free community college for all Americans?
• Is vocational training a better option than a four-year degree for some students?
• Should all students be required to complete community service hours before graduating high school?
• Arecharter schools held to different academic standards than public schools?
• Should all students be required to take a gap year before attending college?

Educational Debate Topic Ideas

• Should schools be teaching vocational skills instead of academic subjects?
• Should the school day start later?
• Should students be able to choose their own classes?
• Should schools ban homework?
• Should standardized tests be abolished?
• Are charter schools a good idea?
• Is homeschooling a good option for families?
• Should Religion be taught in schools?
• Are single-sex schools better than co-ed schools?
• Should all schools be bilingual?
• How can we make sure all children have access to quality education?
• Is it necessary to go to college to be successful in life?
• How can we reduce the drop-out rate in high schools?
• What should be done about overcrowded classrooms?
• Is corporal punishment an effective way to discipline children?
• Are after-school activities important for students?
• What is the best way to deal with bullying in schools?
• How can we make sure all children receive a well-rounded education?
• What is the best way to teach childrenabout sex education?
• Should schools be teaching financial literacy?
• How can we make sure all students have access to technology?
• What is the best way to deal with cheating in schools?
• Should schools be teaching character education?
• How can we make sure all children are physically active?
• Should schools be doing more to promote healthy eating habits?
• What is the best way to deal with disruptive students in class?
• How can we improve teacher training and professional development?
• What is education policy in your country?
• Is your country’s education system effective? Why or why not?

Controversial Education Debate Topics

• Is homeschooling a good or bad idea?
• Should schools be allowed to teach creationism alongside evolution?
• Is it necessary for all students to learn a foreign language?
• Should the school day be shorter or longer?
• Should students be required to wear uniforms?
• Are charter schools a good or bad idea?
• Should schools be more focused on academics or on extracurricular activities?
• How much homework should students be given?
• Should teachers be armed in schools?
• Should prayer be allowed in school?
• Are year-round schools a good idea?
• Is it a good idea to have standardized tests?
• Should sex education be taught in schools?
• Should evolution be taught in schools?
• Should the drinking age be lowered to 18?
• Should students be allowed to grade their own work?
• Is competition among students a good thing or a bad thing?

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20 Debate Topics About Education

A topic which is guaranteed to stimulate passionate debate in your class is education. After all, education issues have the potential to directly affect your students and their futures. In this post, you will find 20 debate topics about education that you can use in your debate class. These are suitable for middle school students, high school students, and adults.

Debate Topics About Education

Here are 20 debate topics about education. All the topics below are formed as a statement so ask your students if they agree or disagree with the statements below.

• School uniforms are important at school.
• Education should be free for everyone.
• All student loan debts should be forgiven.
• Private schools are better than public schools.
• Tuition fees are too expensive.
• Homework is an important part of education.
• All exams should be replaced with coursework.
• School meals should be free for all.
• Teachers should have to wear a school uniform.
• Boys and girls should be taught separately.
• Cell phones should be allowed in the classroom.
• All students should learn at least one foreign language.
• Homeschooling is just as good as traditional schooling.
• School vacations should be shortened to allow more school days.
• Detention should be abolished in schools.
• Social media should be banned in schools.
• Security guards should be in all schools.
• University should be compulsory for all.
• Playing games in the classroom is important.
• Science is a more important subject than art.

Download And Print

Download and print these debate topics about education.

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 55 great debate topics for any project.

General Education

A debate is a formal discussion about a topic where two sides present opposing viewpoints. Debates follow a specific structure: each side is given time to speak either for or against the topic at hand.

Many students study debate in high school to improve their speaking skills. As a debater, you learn how to clearly structure and present an argument. The skills you develop as a debater will help you on everything from a college admissions interview to a job presentation.

Selecting debate topics is one of the most important parts of debating. In this article, we’ll explain how to select a good debate topic and give suggestions for debate topics you can use.

How to Select Good Debate Topics

A good debate topic is one that lets the participants and the audience learn about both sides of an issue. Consider the following factors when selecting a debate topic:

Interest: Are you interested in the topic? Would the topic be interesting to your fellow classmates, as well as to the audience listening to the debate? Selecting a topic that you’re interested in makes the preparation part of the debate more exciting , as well as the debate more lively.

Argument Potential: You want to choose a debate topic that has solid argument potential. If one side is clearly right, or if there isn’t a lot of available information, you’ll have a hard time crafting a solid debate.

Availability of Data: Data points make an argument more robust. You’ll want to select a topic with lots of empirical data that you can pull from to bolster your argument.

Now that we know how to select a debate topic, let’s look at a list of good debate topics.

Debate Topics Master List

If you’re searching for your next debate topic, here are some suggestions.

Social and Political Issues Debate Topics

• All people should have the right to own guns.
• The death penalty should be abolished.
• Human cloning should be legalized.
• All drugs should be legalized.
• Animal testing should be banned.
• Juveniles should be tried and treated as adults.
• Climate change is the greatest threat facing humanity today.
• Violent video games should be banned.
• The minimum wage should be $15 per hour.
• All people should have Universal Basic Income.
• Sex work should be legal.
• Countries should be isolationist.
• Abortion should be banned.
• Every citizen should be mandated to perform national public service.
• Bottled water should be banned.
• Plastic bags should be banned.

Education Debate Topics

• Homework should be banned.
• Public prayer should not be allowed in schools.
• Schools should block sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram on their computers.
• School uniforms should be required.
• Standardized testing should be abolished.
• All students should have an after-school job or internship.
• School should be in session year-round.
• All high school athletes should be drug tested.
• Detention should be abolished.
• All student loan debt should be eliminated.
• Homeschooling is better than traditional schooling.
• All schools should have armed security guards.
• Religion should be taught in schools.
• All schools should be private schools.
• All students should go to boarding schools.
• Sexual education should be mandatory in schools.
• Public college should be tuition free.
• All teachers should get tenure.
• All school districts should offer school vouchers.

Health Debate Topics

• Healthcare should be universal.
• Cosmetic procedures should be covered by health insurance.
• All people should be vegetarians.
• Euthanasia should be banned.
• The drinking age should be 18.
• Vaping should be banned.
• Smoking should be banned in all public places.
• People should be legally required to get vaccines.
• Obesity should be labeled a disease.
• Sexual orientation is determined at birth.
• The sale of human organs should be legalized.
• Birth control should be for sale over the counter.

Technology Debate Topics

• Social media has improved human communication.
• The development of artificial intelligence will help humanity.
• Individuals should own their own DNA.
• Humans should invest in technology to explore and colonize other planets.
• Governments should invest in alternative energy sources.
• Net neutrality should be restored.
• Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies should be encouraged or banned.
• Alternative energy can effectively replace fossil fuels.
• Cell phone radiation is dangerous and should be limited.

How to Prepare for a Debate

Once you’ve selected your debate topic, the next step is to prepare for your debate. Follow these steps as you get ready to take the podium.

Read Your Evidence

The most important step to building your debate confidence is to familiarize yourself with the evidence available. You’ll want to select reputable sources and use empirical data effectively.

The more well read on your topic you are, the better you’ll be able to defend your position and anticipate the other side’s arguments.

Anticipate the Other Side’s Arguments

As part of your debate, you’ll need to rebut the other side’s arguments. It’s important to prepare ahead of time to guess what they’ll be talking about. You’ll bolster your own side’s argument if you’re able to effectively dismantle what the other side is saying.

Plan to Fill Your Speech Time

Each speaker at a debate is limited to a certain amount of time. You should plan to use every second of the time that you’re allotted. Make sure you practice your talking points so that you know you’re within the time frame. If you’re short, add in more evidence.

Practice to Build Confidence

It can be scary to take the stage for a debate! Practicing ahead of time will help you build confidence. Remember to speak slowly and clearly. Even if your argument is great, it won’t matter if no one can understand it.

Final Thoughts

Debate is a great way to hone your public speaking skills and get practice crafting and defending an argument. Use these debate topics if you're searching for a focus for your next debate.

What's Next?

Looking for ways to keep the debate going in non-academic life? Then you'll love our list of 101 "this or that" questions to argue over with your friends.

Thinking about how you can use your argumentative skills in a future career? Read up on the five steps to becoming a lawyer to see if that's a path you want to pursue.

Getting ready to take an AP test? Here’s a list of practice tests for every AP exam, including the AP literature exam .

It can be hard to schedule time to study for an AP test on top of your extracurriculars and normal classwork. Check out this article on when you need to start studying for your AP tests to make sure you’re staying on track.

Hayley Milliman is a former teacher turned writer who blogs about education, history, and technology. When she was a teacher, Hayley's students regularly scored in the 99th percentile thanks to her passion for making topics digestible and accessible. In addition to her work for PrepScholar, Hayley is the author of Museum Hack's Guide to History's Fiercest Females.

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14 fascinating teacher interview questions for principals, tips for success if you have a master’s degree and can’t find a job, 14 ways young teachers can get that professional look, which teacher supplies are worth the splurge, 8 business books every teacher should read, conditional admission: everything you need to know, college majors: everything you need to know, 7 things principals can do to make a teacher observation valuable, 3 easy teacher outfits to tackle parent-teacher conferences, debate topics about education.

Are you a teacher who is looking for education-themed debate topics to use with your students? Well, look no further because we have a list of topics that you can use in your classroom today.

• A college degree is needed to get a good job.
• Are learner loans exploitative?
• All learners should have to purchase a laptop.
• Boarding school is harmful to learners.
• Cell phones should be banned in schools.
• College should be free for everyone.
• Contact sports should be required in school.
• Do you need homework in order?
• Education should be privatized.
• Education should focus on math and science rather than music and art.
• Fast food should be banned in schools.
• Girls should be encouraged to enter STEM fields.
• Homeschooling is better than traditional schooling.
• Public schools are better than private schools.
• Religion should be taught in schools.
• Should free STD testing be offered in schools?
• Schools should have armed guards.
• Should schools teach abstinence-only sex education?
• Should schools teach LGBT+ inclusive sex education?
• Should standardized testing be abolished?
• School uniforms should be mandatory.
• Studying a second language should be compulsory.
• Teachers should be given guns to defend learners.
• Teachers should be paid as much as doctors.

Environmental Themes to Debate

Political debate topics.

Matthew Lynch

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The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2021

From reframing our notion of “good” schools to mining the magic of expert teachers, here’s a curated list of must-read research from 2021.

It was a year of unprecedented hardship for teachers and school leaders. We pored through hundreds of studies to see if we could follow the trail of exactly what happened: The research revealed a complex portrait of a grueling year during which persistent issues of burnout and mental and physical health impacted millions of educators. Meanwhile, many of the old debates continued: Does paper beat digital? Is project-based learning as effective as direct instruction? How do you define what a “good” school is?

Other studies grabbed our attention, and in a few cases, made headlines. Researchers from the University of Chicago and Columbia University turned artificial intelligence loose on some 1,130 award-winning children’s books in search of invisible patterns of bias. (Spoiler alert: They found some.) Another study revealed why many parents are reluctant to support social and emotional learning in schools—and provided hints about how educators can flip the script.

1. What Parents Fear About SEL (and How to Change Their Minds)

When researchers at the Fordham Institute asked parents to rank phrases associated with social and emotional learning , nothing seemed to add up. The term “social-emotional learning” was very unpopular; parents wanted to steer their kids clear of it. But when the researchers added a simple clause, forming a new phrase—”social-emotional & academic learning”—the program shot all the way up to No. 2 in the rankings.

What gives?

Parents were picking up subtle cues in the list of SEL-related terms that irked or worried them, the researchers suggest. Phrases like “soft skills” and “growth mindset” felt “nebulous” and devoid of academic content. For some, the language felt suspiciously like “code for liberal indoctrination.”

But the study suggests that parents might need the simplest of reassurances to break through the political noise. Removing the jargon, focusing on productive phrases like “life skills,” and relentlessly connecting SEL to academic progress puts parents at ease—and seems to save social and emotional learning in the process.

2. The Secret Management Techniques of Expert Teachers

In the hands of experienced teachers, classroom management can seem almost invisible: Subtle techniques are quietly at work behind the scenes, with students falling into orderly routines and engaging in rigorous academic tasks almost as if by magic. 

That’s no accident, according to new research . While outbursts are inevitable in school settings, expert teachers seed their classrooms with proactive, relationship-building strategies that often prevent misbehavior before it erupts. They also approach discipline more holistically than their less-experienced counterparts, consistently reframing misbehavior in the broader context of how lessons can be more engaging, or how clearly they communicate expectations.

Focusing on the underlying dynamics of classroom behavior—and not on surface-level disruptions—means that expert teachers often look the other way at all the right times, too. Rather than rise to the bait of a minor breach in etiquette, a common mistake of new teachers, they tend to play the long game, asking questions about the origins of misbehavior, deftly navigating the terrain between discipline and student autonomy, and opting to confront misconduct privately when possible.

3. The Surprising Power of Pretesting

Asking students to take a practice test before they’ve even encountered the material may seem like a waste of time—after all, they’d just be guessing.

But new research concludes that the approach, called pretesting, is actually more effective than other typical study strategies. Surprisingly, pretesting even beat out taking practice tests after learning the material, a proven strategy endorsed by cognitive scientists and educators alike. In the study, students who took a practice test before learning the material outperformed their peers who studied more traditionally by 49 percent on a follow-up test, while outperforming students who took practice tests after studying the material by 27 percent.

The researchers hypothesize that the “generation of errors” was a key to the strategy’s success, spurring student curiosity and priming them to “search for the correct answers” when they finally explored the new material—and adding grist to a 2018 study that found that making educated guesses helped students connect background knowledge to new material.

Learning is more durable when students do the hard work of correcting misconceptions, the research suggests, reminding us yet again that being wrong is an important milestone on the road to being right.

4. Confronting an Old Myth About Immigrant Students

Immigrant students are sometimes portrayed as a costly expense to the education system, but new research is systematically dismantling that myth.

In a 2021 study , researchers analyzed over 1.3 million academic and birth records for students in Florida communities, and concluded that the presence of immigrant students actually has “a positive effect on the academic achievement of U.S.-born students,” raising test scores as the size of the immigrant school population increases. The benefits were especially powerful for low-income students.

While immigrants initially “face challenges in assimilation that may require additional school resources,” the researchers concluded, hard work and resilience may allow them to excel and thus “positively affect exposed U.S.-born students’ attitudes and behavior.” But according to teacher Larry Ferlazzo, the improvements might stem from the fact that having English language learners in classes improves pedagogy , pushing teachers to consider “issues like prior knowledge, scaffolding, and maximizing accessibility.”

5. A Fuller Picture of What a ‘Good’ School Is

It’s time to rethink our definition of what a “good school” is, researchers assert in a study published in late 2020.⁣ That’s because typical measures of school quality like test scores often provide an incomplete and misleading picture, the researchers found.

The study looked at over 150,000 ninth-grade students who attended Chicago public schools and concluded that emphasizing the social and emotional dimensions of learning—relationship-building, a sense of belonging, and resilience, for example—improves high school graduation and college matriculation rates for both high- and low-income students, beating out schools that focus primarily on improving test scores.⁣

“Schools that promote socio-emotional development actually have a really big positive impact on kids,” said lead researcher C. Kirabo Jackson in an interview with Edutopia . “And these impacts are particularly large for vulnerable student populations who don’t tend to do very well in the education system.”

The findings reinforce the importance of a holistic approach to measuring student progress, and are a reminder that schools—and teachers—can influence students in ways that are difficult to measure, and may only materialize well into the future.⁣

6. Teaching Is Learning

One of the best ways to learn a concept is to teach it to someone else. But do you actually have to step into the shoes of a teacher, or does the mere expectation of teaching do the trick?

In a 2021 study , researchers split students into two groups and gave them each a science passage about the Doppler effect—a phenomenon associated with sound and light waves that explains the gradual change in tone and pitch as a car races off into the distance, for example. One group studied the text as preparation for a test; the other was told that they’d be teaching the material to another student.

The researchers never carried out the second half of the activity—students read the passages but never taught the lesson. All of the participants were then tested on their factual recall of the Doppler effect, and their ability to draw deeper conclusions from the reading.

The upshot? Students who prepared to teach outperformed their counterparts in both duration and depth of learning, scoring 9 percent higher on factual recall a week after the lessons concluded, and 24 percent higher on their ability to make inferences. The research suggests that asking students to prepare to teach something—or encouraging them to think “could I teach this to someone else?”—can significantly alter their learning trajectories.

7. A Disturbing Strain of Bias in Kids’ Books

Some of the most popular and well-regarded children’s books—Caldecott and Newbery honorees among them—persistently depict Black, Asian, and Hispanic characters with lighter skin, according to new research .

Using artificial intelligence, researchers combed through 1,130 children’s books written in the last century, comparing two sets of diverse children’s books—one a collection of popular books that garnered major literary awards, the other favored by identity-based awards. The software analyzed data on skin tone, race, age, and gender.

Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books—those most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves—continue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are “moral or upstanding,” their skin color tends to appear lighter, the study’s lead author, Anjali Aduki,  told The 74 , with some books converting “Martin Luther King Jr.’s chocolate complexion to a light brown or beige.” Female characters, meanwhile, are often seen but not heard.

Cultural representations are a reflection of our values, the researchers conclude: “Inequality in representation, therefore, constitutes an explicit statement of inequality of value.”

8. The Never-Ending ‘Paper Versus Digital’ War

The argument goes like this: Digital screens turn reading into a cold and impersonal task; they’re good for information foraging, and not much more. “Real” books, meanwhile, have a heft and “tactility”  that make them intimate, enchanting—and irreplaceable.

But researchers have often found weak or equivocal evidence for the superiority of reading on paper. While a recent study concluded that paper books yielded better comprehension than e-books when many of the digital tools had been removed, the effect sizes were small. A 2021 meta-analysis further muddies the water: When digital and paper books are “mostly similar,” kids comprehend the print version more readily—but when enhancements like motion and sound “target the story content,” e-books generally have the edge.

Nostalgia is a force that every new technology must eventually confront. There’s plenty of evidence that writing with pen and paper encodes learning more deeply than typing. But new digital book formats come preloaded with powerful tools that allow readers to annotate, look up words, answer embedded questions, and share their thinking with other readers.

We may not be ready to admit it, but these are precisely the kinds of activities that drive deeper engagement, enhance comprehension, and leave us with a lasting memory of what we’ve read. The future of e-reading, despite the naysayers, remains promising.

9. New Research Makes a Powerful Case for PBL

Many classrooms today still look like they did 100 years ago, when students were preparing for factory jobs. But the world’s moved on: Modern careers demand a more sophisticated set of skills—collaboration, advanced problem-solving, and creativity, for example—and those can be difficult to teach in classrooms that rarely give students the time and space to develop those competencies.

Project-based learning (PBL) would seem like an ideal solution. But critics say PBL places too much responsibility on novice learners, ignoring the evidence about the effectiveness of direct instruction and ultimately undermining subject fluency. Advocates counter that student-centered learning and direct instruction can and should coexist in classrooms.

Now two new large-scale studies —encompassing over 6,000 students in 114 diverse schools across the nation—provide evidence that a well-structured, project-based approach boosts learning for a wide range of students.

In the studies, which were funded by Lucas Education Research, a sister division of Edutopia , elementary and high school students engaged in challenging projects that had them designing water systems for local farms, or creating toys using simple household objects to learn about gravity, friction, and force. Subsequent testing revealed notable learning gains—well above those experienced by students in traditional classrooms—and those gains seemed to raise all boats, persisting across socioeconomic class, race, and reading levels.

10. Tracking a Tumultuous Year for Teachers

The Covid-19 pandemic cast a long shadow over the lives of educators in 2021, according to a year’s worth of research.

The average teacher’s workload suddenly “spiked last spring,” wrote the Center for Reinventing Public Education in its January 2021 report, and then—in defiance of the laws of motion—simply never let up. By the fall, a RAND study recorded an astonishing shift in work habits: 24 percent of teachers reported that they were working 56 hours or more per week, compared to 5 percent pre-pandemic.

The vaccine was the promised land, but when it arrived nothing seemed to change. In an April 2021 survey  conducted four months after the first vaccine was administered in New York City, 92 percent of teachers said their jobs were more stressful than prior to the pandemic, up from 81 percent in an earlier survey.

It wasn’t just the length of the work days; a close look at the research reveals that the school system’s failure to adjust expectations was ruinous. It seemed to start with the obligations of hybrid teaching, which surfaced in Edutopia ’s coverage of overseas school reopenings. In June 2020, well before many U.S. schools reopened, we reported that hybrid teaching was an emerging problem internationally, and warned that if the “model is to work well for any period of time,” schools must “recognize and seek to reduce the workload for teachers.” Almost eight months later, a 2021 RAND study identified hybrid teaching as a primary source of teacher stress in the U.S., easily outpacing factors like the health of a high-risk loved one.

New and ever-increasing demands for tech solutions put teachers on a knife’s edge. In several important 2021 studies, researchers concluded that teachers were being pushed to adopt new technology without the “resources and equipment necessary for its correct didactic use.” Consequently, they were spending more than 20 hours a week adapting lessons for online use, and experiencing an unprecedented erosion of the boundaries between their work and home lives, leading to an unsustainable “always on” mentality. When it seemed like nothing more could be piled on—when all of the lights were blinking red—the federal government restarted standardized testing .

Change will be hard; many of the pathologies that exist in the system now predate the pandemic. But creating strict school policies that separate work from rest, eliminating the adoption of new tech tools without proper supports, distributing surveys regularly to gauge teacher well-being, and above all listening to educators to identify and confront emerging problems might be a good place to start, if the research can be believed.

Education and technology: Key issues and debates

Neil Selwyn. Bloomsbury Academic, London and New York, 2022, 3rd edition, 222 pp. ISBN 978-1-3501-4554-2 (hbk), ISBN 978-1-3501-4555-9 (pbk), ISBN 978-1-3501-4553-5 (ePDF), ISBN 978-1-3501-4556-6 (eBook)

• Book Review
• Published: 05 October 2022
• Volume 68 , pages 635–636, ( 2022 )

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Holborow, M. (2016). Neoliberal keywords, political economy and the relevance of ideology. A Journal of Cultural Materialism, 14 , 38–53.

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Selwyn, N. (2019a). Should robots replace teachers?: AI and the future of education . Cambridge: Polity Press.

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Teräs, M. Education and technology: Key issues and debates. Int Rev Educ 68 , 635–636 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11159-022-09971-9

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Education and Schools in Moscow

This guide was written prior to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and is therefore not reflective of the current situation. Travel to Russia is currently not advisable due to the area's volatile political situation.

Despite much debate over the education system in Russia, the country has a high literacy rate. The quality of schooling has improved greatly over time, though it is still far from perfect.

There are public, private and international school options for children of school-going age in Moscow. Most expats choose to send their children to international schools. Expat parents often find that the teaching language and the method of instruction in public and private schools are not ideal for non-Russian children.

Entry requirements into schools may differ, so expats are encouraged to contact the schools directly for more information. In general, expats must provide their visa, the child’s birth certificate and any academic records.

The school year in Moscow follows the Northern Hemisphere pattern, with the longest break being in the summer months. The school week is generally Monday to Friday, from 8am or 9am to 2pm or 3pm.

Generally, there are three stages of schooling: primary school with Grades 1 to 4; basic secondary school from Grades 5 through 9; and upper secondary school which goes up to Grade 12.

Public schools in Moscow

Public school education is free to both Russian and foreign citizens. Parents only pay for meals and school uniforms.

The quality of state schools is debatable, and classrooms tend to have many students. The language of instruction in state schools is mainly Russian. This means, especially for older students who do not speak Russian, this option is often not feasible.

Private schools in Moscow

Private schools are less common than state schools. They provide the same Russian curriculum and teach mainly in Russian, but class sizes are smaller. Private schools are not free but are less expensive than international schools. Due to the language barrier, however, the options for expat education in Moscow remain mostly limited to international schools.

International schools in Moscow

Most international schools in Moscow are expensive. Curriculum models range from those that follow American or British teaching systems to ones that combine the Russian curriculum with international curricula. Alternatively, some offer the International Baccalaureate. There are several English-language schools to choose from, as well as schools teaching the German, French and Indian curricula.

Demand for the most prestigious schools can be high, and long waiting lists are to be expected. For this reason, expat parents moving to Moscow should attempt to enrol their children as early as possible.

Special-needs education in Moscow

There are limited schooling options for children with disabilities in Moscow. That said, efforts to develop the school system for those with disabilities are being made to avoid excluding these children. International schools are aiming to improve the possible support they could give. Some schools provide interventions including learning support, occupational therapy and speech programmes to enable students with mild to moderate learning disabilities to continue their education.

Homeschooling in Moscow

Homeschooling is becoming more and more common in Moscow, especially in comparison to the rest of the country. Expat parents must follow certain regulations. One such regulation is that they must enrol their child into a licensed school which acts as a supervising body. In some cases, homeschooled children can get access to resource provisions such as books. The school can also act as the exam centre when children must write formal exams.

Tutors in Moscow

Being such a large city, Moscow has many options for finding tutors. Expat parents will find various online platforms and portals through which they can hire a tutor for their child in Moscow. Tutors will be extremely helpful in assisting expat children with learning Russian, adjusting to their new school environment and curriculum, and getting up to speed in classes.

Further reading

►For a list of schools in Moscow for expats, see  International Schools in Moscow

►For a more in-depth description of the different schooling options available, see Education and Schools in Russia

Expat Interviews "My kids go to the French school. Our experiences have been mixed there. But overall it has met our needs (and price)." Read what Amanda has to say on her children settling into Moscow from her interview .

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Rick Hess Straight Up

Education policy maven Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute think tank offers straight talk on matters of policy, politics, research, and reform. Read more from this blog.

Where Do Democrats Stand on Education?

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The politics of education today look very different from those of the Bush-Obama years, when Democrats for Education Reform got its start. The bipartisan consensus that informed policies like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top has given way to a polarized environment. What’s that mean for would-be school reformers, especially in the shadow of a presidential contest between two hugely unpopular candidates? I thought I’d reach out to Jorge Elorza, the CEO of DFER and a former two-term mayor of Providence, R.I., to get his take on the Democratic agenda, school choice, and the education landscape. Here’s what he had to say.

Rick: You took the reins of DFER last year after eight years as mayor of Providence. What’s struck you most in this new role?

Jorge: What has struck me the most is the extent of the crisis in public education and the lack of urgency among political leaders to address it. Public education is the bedrock of opportunity in America, but too many of our academic institutions are simply not making the grade. Kids are not getting the equitable opportunities they deserve—and there is too little being done to change this. This inaction is especially concerning given the profound and lasting impact of the pandemic on our education system. The need for urgent, transformative solutions has never been clearer; hence, our focus on getting more Democratic leaders to prioritize bold, evidence-based education policies.

Rick: As you know, there are those on the left who’ve long attacked DFER for being insufficiently progressive. How do you respond to such critics? And, in the same vein, can you say a few words about just why you’re a Democrat?

Jorge: We’ve always believed that DFER’s mission aligns well with core progressive values. We believe that low-income and Black and brown families should have the same access to high-quality education options as families with means. However, being hyperfocused on kids and families, as opposed to the adults in the system, has led some folks to criticize us. I’m a Democrat because, compared to Republicans, I’ve always believed that the party at least tries to look out for the little guy. On education, we still have a lot of work to do!

Rick: DFER was founded nearly 20 years ago, back when education reform was riding high and DFER could lean on celebrities like New York City schools Chancellor Joel Klein and D.C. chief Michelle Rhee. How are things different today?

Jorge: Today, DFER operates in a political landscape that is not as open to fundamental education reform as it once was. Many folks have even pronounced education reform dead. But I think that assessment is awfully wrong. It is true that many philanthropists and political leaders have turned away from ed. reform, but the desire for choice among the public is about as high as it has ever been. Our message to the Democratic Party is that the choice-vs.-no-choice debate has been settled among voters. Choice won. We must embrace choice in a form that aligns with Democratic values and we are calling for the party to embrace public school choice as the cornerstone of its education agenda.

Rick: When DFER was launched, there was substantial support for measures like charter schools and other forms of school choice in the Democratic Party. But as you note, that’s less true today, at least among the policy elite. How has that altered DFER’s role?

Jorge: The political landscape has indeed shifted, and elected leaders have moved away from our issues. Ten years ago, voters trusted Democrats on education far more than they trusted Republicans—in fact, Democrats held a double-digit advantage over Republicans on voters’ trust on education. Today, that advantage is gone. To put it bluntly, voters no longer see Democrats as the party of education. Our outreach to the party makes the case that embracing an ambitious ed. reform agenda is not only good policy but also good politics. With elections as tight as they are, every issue matters. We want to make sure that Democrats lead on education policy once again.

Rick: As you well know, when it comes to school choice today, polling suggests a stark split between college-educated progressives, who are skeptical, and rank-and-file Democrats, who tend to be supportive. How are you navigating that tension?

Jorge: This is an interesting moment for Democrats as they become more attuned to the fact that low-income Black and Latino voters are drifting away from them. Education can and should be part of the message that brings independents and traditional rank-and-file Democrats back into the fold. We believe that voters support high-quality education options because . . . of course they do! Once folks have seen that they can have high-quality options to choose from, they naturally want more of them. Hence, we believe Democrats should embrace an education policy that emphasizes a broad menu of public school options.

Rick: Where does DFER stand on testing and educational accountability today?

Jorge: Strong accountability standards have always been a core policy pillar of ours. Without accountability, it’s hard to improve our education systems. We also support standardized testing because it is a tool to measure progress and hold schools accountable for serving their students. In fact, unlike in the NCLB era, we believe that not enough is being done to provide opportunities to students in the lowest-performing schools, either by fundamentally revamping those schools or by offering students new and better options in the public system. We are working to change that.

Rick: Could you say a bit about DFER’s approach when it comes to promoting the science of reading?

Jorge: We believe America should launch a moonshot goal of getting every child to read at grade level by 3rd grade by 2030. We advocate comprehensive reforms, beginning with teacher training and continuing through curriculum selection and professional development. Growth in states like Mississippi demonstrates that transformation is possible and underscores the bipartisan nature of this issue. Governor Wes Moore’s decision to appoint Carey Wright, a leader in Mississippi’s successful reading reforms, to head Maryland’s literacy efforts further emphasizes the universality of the goal.

Rick: How do you think President Biden has performed in light of the DFER agenda?

Jorge: President Biden showed tremendous leadership by investing historic sums in education to address COVID-related learning loss. We applaud him for that. However, his administration has lacked a clear K–12 reform agenda, which raises questions about what they want their education legacy to be. The politics of education are hard. That said, we’d like to see the administration champion K–12 policies that require a certain measure of political courage. We are hopeful that in a second term, students and families will have as much political influence as the adults have now.

Rick: That said, in response to the administration’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget, you released a pretty forceful statement , declaring, “The administration’s cuts to public school choice give the least consideration to the very communities the president needs the most. It not only hurts students, it hurts the president’s re-election chances.” Can you say a bit more about the proposed cuts and the political consequences that concern you?

Jorge: What we were driving home with that statement was the fact that cuts to the federal Charter Schools Program, or CSP, directly oppose what so many families are telling us they want for their kids. Families have been clearly saying they need more opportunities for innovative educational pathways; public charter schools provide exactly that. We were cautioning the administration that ignoring the wishes of these families—these voters—potentially jeopardizes its electoral prospects. I am pleased to see that since that statement, Biden has signed into law the congressional spending package, which flat-funds, rather than cuts, CSP. We will, however, continue to urge Congress to increase funding for CSP to $500 million and hope to see this in the future.

Rick: Looking at the education landscape as a whole, how do you think about the role of DFER in 2024?

Jorge: There are a limitless number of important issues in education today, but DFER’s North Star has always been “results for kids.” We will continue to focus on a practical, evidence-based, results-driven approach to education policy. Despite all of the progress we’ve seen over the years, too many school systems are still falling woefully short of where they need to be—and in the process, lives are being lost. There is a crisis in public education, and we need to bring widespread attention to it. You can expect us to speak with a heightened sense of urgency on this issue.

Rick: Final question: Looking forward, what are you most optimistic about when it comes to school improvement?

Jorge: As they say, you should never let a good crisis go to waste. I believe the changing political dynamics will force Democrats to take education policy more seriously again. In my opinion, there is no major policy area in America that lends itself to broad bipartisan support more than public school choice. Once Democrats fully embrace it, I believe two things will happen: Education policies will be bolder, and Democrats will lead on education again.

The opinions expressed in Rick Hess Straight Up are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Key facts about the abortion debate in America

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade – the decision that had guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion for nearly 50 years – has shifted the legal battle over abortion to the states, with some prohibiting the procedure and others moving to safeguard it.

As the nation’s post-Roe chapter begins, here are key facts about Americans’ views on abortion, based on two Pew Research Center polls: one conducted from June 25-July 4 , just after this year’s high court ruling, and one conducted in March , before an earlier leaked draft of the opinion became public.

This analysis primarily draws from two Pew Research Center surveys, one surveying 10,441 U.S. adults conducted March 7-13, 2022, and another surveying 6,174 U.S. adults conducted June 27-July 4, 2022. Here are the questions used for the March survey , along with responses, and the questions used for the survey from June and July , along with responses.

Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories.  Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

A majority of the U.S. public disapproves of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. About six-in-ten adults (57%) disapprove of the court’s decision that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion and that abortion laws can be set by states, including 43% who strongly disapprove, according to the summer survey. About four-in-ten (41%) approve, including 25% who strongly approve.

About eight-in-ten Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (82%) disapprove of the court’s decision, including nearly two-thirds (66%) who strongly disapprove. Most Republicans and GOP leaners (70%) approve , including 48% who strongly approve.

Most women (62%) disapprove of the decision to end the federal right to an abortion. More than twice as many women strongly disapprove of the court’s decision (47%) as strongly approve of it (21%). Opinion among men is more divided: 52% disapprove (37% strongly), while 47% approve (28% strongly).

About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the summer survey – little changed since the March survey conducted just before the ruling. That includes 29% of Americans who say it should be legal in all cases and 33% who say it should be legal in most cases. About a third of U.S. adults (36%) say abortion should be illegal in all (8%) or most (28%) cases.

Generally, Americans’ views of whether abortion should be legal remained relatively unchanged in the past few years , though support fluctuated somewhat in previous decades.

Relatively few Americans take an absolutist view on the legality of abortion – either supporting or opposing it at all times, regardless of circumstances. The March survey found that support or opposition to abortion varies substantially depending on such circumstances as when an abortion takes place during a pregnancy, whether the pregnancy is life-threatening or whether a baby would have severe health problems.

While Republicans’ and Democrats’ views on the legality of abortion have long differed, the 46 percentage point partisan gap today is considerably larger than it was in the recent past, according to the survey conducted after the court’s ruling. The wider gap has been largely driven by Democrats: Today, 84% of Democrats say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, up from 72% in 2016 and 63% in 2007. Republicans’ views have shown far less change over time: Currently, 38% of Republicans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, nearly identical to the 39% who said this in 2007.

However, the partisan divisions over whether abortion should generally be legal tell only part of the story. According to the March survey, sizable shares of Democrats favor restrictions on abortion under certain circumstances, while majorities of Republicans favor abortion being legal in some situations , such as in cases of rape or when the pregnancy is life-threatening.

There are wide religious divides in views of whether abortion should be legal , the summer survey found. An overwhelming share of religiously unaffiliated adults (83%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do six-in-ten Catholics. Protestants are divided in their views: 48% say it should be legal in all or most cases, while 50% say it should be illegal in all or most cases. Majorities of Black Protestants (71%) and White non-evangelical Protestants (61%) take the position that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while about three-quarters of White evangelicals (73%) say it should be illegal in all (20%) or most cases (53%).

In the March survey, 72% of White evangelicals said that the statement “human life begins at conception, so a fetus is a person with rights” reflected their views extremely or very well . That’s much greater than the share of White non-evangelical Protestants (32%), Black Protestants (38%) and Catholics (44%) who said the same. Overall, 38% of Americans said that statement matched their views extremely or very well.

Catholics, meanwhile, are divided along religious and political lines in their attitudes about abortion, according to the same survey. Catholics who attend Mass regularly are among the country’s strongest opponents of abortion being legal, and they are also more likely than those who attend less frequently to believe that life begins at conception and that a fetus has rights. Catholic Republicans, meanwhile, are far more conservative on a range of abortion questions than are Catholic Democrats.

Women (66%) are more likely than men (57%) to say abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to the survey conducted after the court’s ruling.

More than half of U.S. adults – including 60% of women and 51% of men – said in March that women should have a greater say than men in setting abortion policy . Just 3% of U.S. adults said men should have more influence over abortion policy than women, with the remainder (39%) saying women and men should have equal say.

The March survey also found that by some measures, women report being closer to the abortion issue than men . For example, women were more likely than men to say they had given “a lot” of thought to issues around abortion prior to taking the survey (40% vs. 30%). They were also considerably more likely than men to say they personally knew someone (such as a close friend, family member or themselves) who had had an abortion (66% vs. 51%) – a gender gap that was evident across age groups, political parties and religious groups.

Relatively few Americans view the morality of abortion in stark terms , the March survey found. Overall, just 7% of all U.S. adults say having an abortion is morally acceptable in all cases, and 13% say it is morally wrong in all cases. A third say that having an abortion is morally wrong in most cases, while about a quarter (24%) say it is morally acceptable in most cases. An additional 21% do not consider having an abortion a moral issue.

Among Republicans, most (68%) say that having an abortion is morally wrong either in most (48%) or all cases (20%). Only about three-in-ten Democrats (29%) hold a similar view. Instead, about four-in-ten Democrats say having an abortion is morally  acceptable  in most (32%) or all (11%) cases, while an additional 28% say it is not a moral issue. 

White evangelical Protestants overwhelmingly say having an abortion is morally wrong in most (51%) or all cases (30%). A slim majority of Catholics (53%) also view having an abortion as morally wrong, but many also say it is morally acceptable in most (24%) or all cases (4%), or that it is not a moral issue (17%). Among religiously unaffiliated Americans, about three-quarters see having an abortion as morally acceptable (45%) or not a moral issue (32%).

• Religion & Abortion

Jane Doe is a a research analyst focusing on social and demographic research at Pew Research Center

What the data says about abortion in the U.S.

Support for legal abortion is widespread in many countries, especially in europe, nearly a year after roe’s demise, americans’ views of abortion access increasingly vary by where they live, by more than two-to-one, americans say medication abortion should be legal in their state, most latinos say democrats care about them and work hard for their vote, far fewer say so of gop, most popular.

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PRO/CON Debate: Atrial Fibrillation Ablation in Older Adults With Heart Failure and Reduced Ejection Fraction: Please Ablate

Apr 24, 2024   |   Brian Olshansky, MD, FACC

Expert Analysis

Quick Takes

• Heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are a bad combination, such that AF can exacerbate HF symptoms, worsen left ventricular function, and create multiple adverse consequences despite optimal medical therapy for HF.
• Maintenance of sinus rhythm in patients with HF and AF can improve outcomes, but antiarrhythmic drug therapy is inferior to catheter ablation in this regard.
• Evidence indicates that age, per se, is not a contraindication to catheter ablation of AF, even for patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (EF) or HF with preserved EF, and catheter ablation can be performed safely and effectively even in those >80 years of age.

The PRO portion of the currently featured PRO / CON debate between Dr. Brian Olshansky and Dr. John Mandrola presents a significant conundrum within the fields of electrophysiology and geriatric cardiology.

It is widely recognized that cardiovascular (CV) clinical trials often fail to enroll an adequate number of older adults. Furthermore, in the rare instances when they focus on recruiting older participants, there is a lack of representation of real-life older adults. These real-life individuals are thought to typically exhibit a higher magnitude of complex underlying physical, cognitive, financial, and social conditions. Moreover, their underlying values, preferences, and priorities are often not well understood.

This debate represents a stride toward creating a more effective approach to geriatric CV care within the electrophysiological sphere. It involves the determination of not only CV factors but also intricate geriatric conditions and considers what matters most to the patient. The hope is that readers enjoy the current collection of pieces exploring this debate.

See the brief clinical vignette in this poll :  Mr. PT is an 82-year-old man who presents with persistent, mildly symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) of approximately 4-5 months' duration. He also has heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II heart failure (HF) symptoms and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 40%.

• AF and HF are a bad combination, with AF contributing to worsening HF by multiple mechanisms, including irregular rate, loss of atrial "kick," tachycardia, and inappropriate rate response. 1
• Outcomes of patients with HF and AF are not improved with a rhythm-control drug strategy versus a rate-control approach; antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress AF are often ineffective and cause serious adverse effects.
• Ablation is more effective to prevent AF than is medical therapy based on the results of randomized, prospective, controlled trials of patients with HF, including the AATAC (Ablation vs. Amiodarone for Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation in Patients With Congestive Heart Failure and Implanted ICD/CRTD) trial of patients with HFrEF, the RAFT-AF (A Randomized Ablation-based atrial Fibrillation rhythm control versus rate control Trial in patients with heart failure and high burden Atrial Fibrillation) 2 of patients with HFrEF and HF with preserved ejection fraction, and others. AF ablation in patients with HF is associated with better LVEF, 6-min walk test distance, N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide levels, and quality of life.
• The results of randomized prospective trials, including the CASTLE-AF (Catheter Ablation versus Standard conventional Treatment in patients with LEft ventricular dysfunction and Atrial Fibrillation ) 3 trial of patients with HFrEF and the CASTLE HTx (Catheter Ablation in End-Stage Heart Failure With Atrial Fibrillation) 4 trial of patients with "end-stage HF," showed highly significant benefit of ablation versus medical therapy on the basis of multiple endpoints, including survival. These data, supported by the results of a post hoc analysis from the CABANA (Catheter ABlation vs ANtiarrhythmic Drug Therapy in Atrial Fibrillation) trial, may benefit patients by reversal of arrhythmia-induced cardiomyopathy, 1 or by other mechanisms.
• AF ablation success rates are similar in adults >75 years of age and in younger adults based on the results of multiple studies. 5 Data from Japan indicate that patients with AF >80 years of age have similar success and complication rates to those <80 years of age regarding CV events, AF recurrence, CV deaths, and permanent AF 6,7 ; similar data exist in US databases. 8 According to ablation data from these older populations, 28-42% of patients had HF.
• AF ablation can improve symptom severity, anxiety, and depression. 9 Early ablation after presentation with HF and AF appears associated with improved survival rates compared with rates in a matched cohort attempting a strategy of initial medical therapy. 10
• Although ablation data in older adults have limitations including selection bias, investigator bias, lack of sham control and, in some instances, only being observational data, all available data to date indicate that AF ablation in older adults is the most effective and safest way to improve outcomes of older adults with AF and HF ( Figure 1 ).

• Gopinathannair R, Chen LY, Chung MK, et al.; American Heart Association Electrocardiography and Arrhythmias Committee and Heart Failure and Transplantation Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, Council on Hypertension, Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health, the Stroke Council. Managing atrial fibrillation in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circ Arrhythm Electrophysiol 2021;14: HAE0000000000000078.
• Parkash R, Wells GA, Rouleau J, et al. Randomized ablation-based rhythm-control versus rate-control trial in patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation: results from the RAFT-AF trial. Circulation 2022;145:1693-704.
• Marrouche NF, Brachmann J, Andresen D, et al.; CASTLE-AF Investigators. Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation with heart failure. N Engl J Med 2018;378:417-27.
• Sohns C, Fox H, Marrouche NF, et al.; CASTLE HTx Investigators. Catheter ablation in end-stage heart failure with atrial fibrillation. N Engl J Med 2023;389:1380-9.
• Prasitlumkum N, Tokavanich N, Trongtorsak A, et al. Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation in the elderly >75 years old: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol 2022;33:1435-49.
• Okamatsu H, Okumura K, Onishi F, et al. Safety and efficacy of ablation index-guided atrial fibrillation ablation in octogenarians. Clin Cardiol 2023;46:794-800.
• Okawa K, Taya S, Morimoto T, et al. Cardiovascular events and death after catheter ablation in very old patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Aging (Albany NY) 2023;15:7343-61.
• Aldaas OM, Darden D, Mylavarapu PS, et al. Safety and efficacy of catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation in the very elderly (≥80 years old): insights from the UC San Diego AF Ablation Registry. Clin Cardiol 2023;46:1488-94.
• Al-Kaisey AM, Parameswaran R, Bryant C, et al. Atrial fibrillation catheter ablation vs medical therapy and psychological distress: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2023;330:925-33.
• Sakamoto K, Tohyama T, Ide T, et al. Efficacy of early catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation after admission for heart failure. JACC Clin Electrophysiol 2023;9:1948-59.

Clinical Topics: Arrhythmias and Clinical EP, Geriatric Cardiology, Atrial Fibrillation/Supraventricular Arrhythmias, Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathies, Anticoagulation Management

Keywords: Ablation, Geriatrics, Atrial Fibrillation, Aged

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