Policy Debate (CX)

This year's policy topic is "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."

Reynolds High School focuses mostly on Policy debate, also known as CX debate. This style involves the greatest amount of preparation, depth of understanding, and competence with the assigned issue. All of the other styles of debate are good preparation for eventually competing in Policy.

CX debate in Oregon involves a team of typically two students preparing and debating together on the same topic all year. They must be ready to debate both the Affirmative and Negative sides of the topic. Whether on the Affirmative or Negative, each speaker on the team is responsible for one constructive speech, one cross-examination questioning period, and one rebuttal. Each team also has five minutes of prep time which can be used at the team's discretion. See the above PDFs for specific roles, ordering, and speech lengths, as well as a sample form a judge would use to evaluate a round.

See the below video featuring a sample policy debate round.