Florida is putting $2.4 million in state funding toward speech and debate programs during the 2026-27 school year, with the goal of expanding access across all 67 school districts.
The money will support the Florida Debate Initiative, a Central Florida-based nonprofit that runs debate tournaments, student programs and training for teachers and coaches.
The funding is intended to expand access to competitive debate for students who have had fewer opportunities to participate, including ESOL students and those in rural and high-need communities.
State Senator Jason Brodeur, a Lake Mary Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the goal went beyond competition.
"I just think it's such an important thing for civic education," Brodeur said.
He said debate can give students practice listening to arguments they disagree with and responding without turning disagreements into personal conflicts.
"With AI, you're able to curate your own news feed," he said. "It's possible to search the internet for hours and never see an opposing viewpoint."
The Florida Debate Initiative began in six Central Florida counties before expanding statewide. Brodeur said Central Florida remained the "heart" of the program, but the new funding will be available throughout Florida to help build programs in schools that do not already have established teams.
Student impact
Luis David Latozefsky began speech and debate as a ninth-grade English-language learner after immigrating to the United States from Venezuela.
"When I got here, I had speech impediments. I couldn't talk," Latozefsky said.
With help from a debate coach, he said he worked on pronunciation, argumentation and confidence. He eventually placed second at Harvard University's national tournament and won first place at the Florida Key National Tournament hosted by the University of Florida.
He later became an FDI Fellow and scholarship recipient.
"They don't understand the amount of life and change that can happen, they start to believe that they matter, they start to believe that they have something to say that no one else was willing to listen to before," he said.
Latozefsky said his experience helped inspire FDI's American Dream Debate program, which focuses on giving multilingual students opportunities to develop public speaking and civic skills.
"With their help, I became a person that I'm proud to say is different from the person they got first," he said.
He also saw participation grow at his school. When he joined, he said about 20 students were involved in debate. After FDI helped establish competitions and leadership opportunities, he said participation grew to roughly 60 or 70 students, with students competing in both English and Spanish.
"It's not only now high schoolers, they're investing so much time in helping kids all across the state," Latozefsky said. "I'm really happy about this funding opportunity, because it will lead other kids like me who share similar backgrounds to speak with confidence and to have a voice that is only theirs to continue fueling their faith into the beautiful world that we live in."
The big picture
Brodeur said he wants to eventually create a stronger pipeline for teachers who want to coach debate.
"I would like to, in the future, really put some meat on the bones in terms of curriculum to train new teachers coming out of the university system and get them a debate coaching certificate," he said.
The Florida Debate Initiative will also be required to report annually to the Florida Department of Education on how the state money is spent and on the progress of debate programs.
During the 2025–2026 school year, FDI distributed $327,000 in stipends to speech and debate coaches statewide. Nearly $80,000 of that funding went to schools and teams in FDI's Central Florida region.
The original proposal for this year sought $4.6 million, including funding for Florida Virtual School and school district travel to competitions. Lawmakers ultimately approved $2.4 million for 2026-27.
Brodeur said the broader goal is giving students a skill they can use beyond school.
"I think it is an important universal skill that is going to help civic education throughout one's life," he said. "As we raise the next generation of citizens, they're having an opportunity to defend ideas, dismantle ideas without emotion, and use logic to come to a conclusion, because disagreement's not a threat; it's an opportunity to refine the truth."
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