DEBATE-Kansas City is an Urban Debate League that provides middle and high school students debate workshops & tournaments, scholarships, resources, mentoring and general team support. DEBATE-Kansas City participants have achieved academic success and assumed leadership roles in high school, college and beyond. We encourage you to read through these materials to better understand the powerful impact that DEBATE-Kansas City can have on each student.
Open Letter from President of the Board of DEBATE-Kansas City
Success by the Numbers
Testimonials
About DEBATE-Kansas City
Open Letter
Are you are tired of reading headlines about suffering schools and troubled teens in the Kansas City area? Are you concerned by budget cuts “in this economy” that dismantle programs essential to the development of our city’s students? If so, DEBATE-Kansas City (DKC) needs your financial help.
DEBATE-Kansas City is an Urban Debate League that provides middle and high school students debate workshops & tournaments, scholarships, resources, mentoring and general team support. DKC seniors graduate over 95% of the time; the academic studies supporting debate’s ability to improve test scores are almost too countless to name. Debate is good. Ironically there is little debate over this point.
Kansas City has an incredible debate legacy. 
Melvin B. Tolson, the greatest African American debate coach in our nation’s history, received his early speech training at Lincoln High. His success inspired the film The Great Debaters, where he was played by Denzel Washington. More recently, Joe Miller’s award winning book, Cross-X, detailed the journey and success of the Kansas City Central debate team.
Before the creation of DEBATE-Kansas City in 1998, only two schools in the city had debate teams. At DKC’s peak, 40 middle and high schools had teams. Unfortunately, as The Kansas City Star recently reported, debate programs in Kansas City recently suffered from significant financial cutbacks, ultimately resulting in an 82% decline in students who can participate in KCMO. Nobody knows the exact moment when successful programs like debate die in inner cities; they just slowly fade out of consciousness.
We can avoid this fate, we can keep a legacy alive and empower the next generation of great debaters to write new stories of success. Our goal is raise $50,000 so that we can continue to provide these essential debate opportunities to students in the Kansas City area. With your generous support, we can save DEBATE in Kansas City.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey E. Thomas
President of the DEBATE-Kansas City Board of Directors
Research consistently confirms that debate is an effective pedagogical tool to increase academic achievement, leadership, and self-image. Below are some highlights from our experience and from large research projects designed to measure the effect of debate on a student.
…back to the top
Testimonials
DEBATE-Kansas City has impacted thousands of students, educators and community members. The following are a few testimonials that demonstrate the effect that this powerful activity can have at the individual-level.
“The biggest gift that debate gives students is a belief in themselves. I know of few other classes that can make that statement. After success at their first few encounters with debates, students see themselves in a different way. It becomes obvious that by working at this activity they can do anything. That is the “magic”, if you will, that happens in the debate room.”
- Jane Rinehart, Member of DKC Coaches Hall of Fame
“..School lets out at about 2:15, and that leaves plenty of hours before the parents get home for kids just to roam the streets. And that’s where their problems really tend to happen, immediately after school. And there’s just nothing to do. People starting losing faith and reasons to come to school because they don’t see what’s at the end of the road, and that’s what debate provides.”
- Marcus Leach, DKC alumni and recent Howard Law graduate on NPR’s Talk of the Nation
The award-winning 2006 book Cross-X chronicled the success of Central’s debate team. Head coach Jane Rinerhart inspired debaters like Marcus Leach to break barriers and win championships.
“Wash said he saved his education by joining Central’s debate team, which traveled to private prep schools across the Midwest.”
-Ryan Wash DKC Alumnus commenting in the Kansas City Star 2010
“To be a part of that top 20 – you could have told me that I got twentieth and it would have felt like first place,” Williams- Green said. It resonated and was very symbolic for me…it’s a white male dominant activity and so for any minority to come in and do well is not only unheard of but speaks volumes to the evolutionary patterns of debate – it was good, it was real good.”
- LaToya Green-Williams, DKC Alumnus commenting on her national speaking award in the ESU Bulletin, 2011
…back to the top
About DEBATE-Kansas City
DEBATE-Kansas City is an Urban Debate League that provides middle and high school students debate workshops & tournaments, scholarships, resources, mentoring and general team support. DEBATE-Kansas City impacts hundreds of students each year at a very low cost per student ratio. The vast majority of these students would not have access to competitive debate without DEBATE-Kansas City, and each would have a diminished experience in debate. The following are some specific services that DEBATE-Kansas City provides to its schools:
Complete DKC Tournament Season (typically 8 )
Debate League Management
Complete Curriculum & Research Files
60+ Hours of Debate Coach Professional Development
Awards Night Celebration
Student Workshops & Rewards
Student Mentoring
On-Site Support
Annual City Championship
Unique Events, Advocacy & Outreach
College Connections & Scholarships
Great Debater Award
Digital Outreach—Blog, Face book & YouTube
National Urban Debate Support & Championship
Melvin B. Tolson Senior Award
Access to Summer Debate Camp Scholarships
The DEBATE-Kansas City is lead by a dedicated staff and board of directors:
Gabe Cook
Project Manager, DEBATE-Kansas City
Jeffrey E. Thomas
President
UMKC School of Law
Dr. Carol Koehler
Treasurer
UMKC Communication Studies
Martha Thompson
Secretary
Keys to Success Educational Consulting
W. Thomas Dugard Jr.
Affirmational Leadership Consulting
The Honorable Kenneth Garrett
16th Circuit Court
Hayley E. Hanson
Husch Blackwell
Denise R. Hastings
Kauffmann Scholars
Patricia D. Kurtz
Liberty High School
Joseph Langston
Polsinelli Shughart
Shane Mecham
Levy and Craig
Rachel E. Schwartz
Stueve Siegel Hanson
Mikah Thompson
Ogletree Deakins
