New season, new debates

Disclaimer: Daniella Roos ‘24 and Sofia Barrera ‘25 are both members of the Carrollton varsity debate team.

After a long summer all over the country training for the rigorous season ahead, the Carrollton policy debate team is ready to begin their competitive year and make it the best one yet.

Last year, hundreds of teams from all over the nation hosted debates throughout the season about highly technical subjects like artificial intelligence, biotechnology and cybersecurity and how they can be implemented into alliances. Specifically, they researched the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s relationship with the United states.

This year, students will debate fiscal redistribution. Fiscal redistribution refers to progressive taxation that generates revenue for the government to transfer to the wider population, either universally or through targeted transfers.

Teams affirming the topic advocate for redistributive proposals like creating a universal basic income through a carbon tax, expanding social security by increasing the payroll tax, and providing a jobs guarantee funded by a consumption tax.

Some daring debaters even argue that fiscal redistribution does not require taxation, advocating for a jobs guarantee funded through Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Believers of MMT encourage the use of deficit spending to uphold government programs. In other words, they want to print more money. According to Carrollton coach Mr. Katz, this argument is “a fringe economic theory.”

Teams opposing fiscal redistribution typically argue that the states, not the federal government should implement these proposals, that they would wreck the economy, and that they are too politically unpopular.

Last weekend, Carrollton arrived in Dallas, Texas for the debate season opener at Greenhill High School. Reading through their pairings for the tournament, they realized that they were scheduled to advocate for fiscal redistribution half of the time and against it the other half of the time.

While on the affirmative side, the Carrollton team advocated for expanding social security benefits. This was a somewhat unpopular proposal that they had to fight for in order to defend. When negating the topic, they relied mostly on arguments about the economy. They claimed that other proposals, like guaranteeing jobs or establishing a basic income, would be too inflationary and destroy economic productivity.

Due to its success last season, the Carrollton team was invited to compete in the “round robin” portion of the tournament. The round robin invites the best 14 teams in the nation to debate each other in a mini-tournament before the actual event. The team also reached the octafinals, or the Sweet 16, of the general Greenhill tournament.

According to Carrollton debater Lauren Nieto ‘24, “this opening to the season would not have been possible without the incredible coaching staff that Carrollton provides each year.”

Alejandra Martinez-Fraga ‘24 agreed. Mr. Heidt, Mr. Katz, Dr. Bricker, Mrs. Randall, and Ms. Pujol helped the team immensely to prepare for tournaments all over the country while also creating a “healthy team environment,” she said.

As Carrollton debaters look towards a season full of challenging tournaments in cities such as Chicago, Nashville and Atlanta, they will be sure to put their best foot forward and make the most of this captivatingly educational topic.

“I am very excited for this year. We have excellent coaches and a great topic that we are all ready to learn more about,” said Nieto.

The season will conclude in Bloomington, Indiana at the National Debate Coaches Association’s National Championships where the team hopes to reflect on great triumphs from this season.