​In February 2019, Florida’s then Commissioner of Education, Richard Corcoran, walked into Apopka High School, ready to check out what was happening on a Saturday morning. What he found was nothing short of an all-star game for the mind. The Central Florida Debate Initiative, led by co-founders Tara Tedrow and Beth Eskin, had turned this Orlando-area school into a powerhouse of intellectual action. The place was buzzing with hundreds of local students, mostly from public schools, all suited up like they were heading into the big leagues. Instead of playing sports, though, these students were going head-to-head in debates, tackling tough topics like foreign policy with the same intensity as a playoff game.

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Commissioner Corcoran, half-joking, asked if the students were here willingly, maybe wondering if this was some kind of academic boot camp. But as he watched them quoting heavyweights like Locke and Kant, it became crystal clear—these students weren’t just showing up: they were in the zone, crushing it in debate just like athletes on game day.

 

The backstory was just as gripping as the showdown on the debate floor. Central Florida used to be a major contender in the speech and debate circuit, regularly bringing home national trophies from the early ’90s to the mid-2000s. Tara Tedrow was a star from that golden era, winning three national championships for Celebration High School. After earning a Presidential Debate scholarship at Wake Forest University and later graduating from the University of Florida Law School, she came back to her hometown, now a land-use lawyer. But instead of finding a thriving debate scene, she discovered that Celebration High’s once-dominant team had disappeared.

 

Not willing to accept defeat, Tedrow teamed up with Beth Eskin, a coach with over 20 years of experience leading nationally ranked public school teams. Together, they launched the Central Florida Debate Initiative with one clear goal: to bring debate back as a major league option for public school students. 

 

From 2014 to 2019, Tedrow and Eskin worked tirelessly to rebuild a championship team. They added 22 debate programs in Orange, Lake, and Osceola Counties, digging into their own pockets and scoring a few community grants to make it happen. But they knew they were playing for something bigger. They convinced Commissioner Corcoran that with the right backing, their initiative could go statewide.

 

The Commissioner, seeing the game-changing potential, set up a crucial meeting between Tedrow, Eskin, and the Marcus Foundation’s reps at Tampa Airport. The outcome of that meeting would forever change Florida’s educational playing field.

 

The Birth of the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative: With a game-changing $5 million grant from the Marcus Foundation and $1.425 million in state funding for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative hit the ground running. This powerhouse partnership—bringing together the Florida 

Education Foundation with Tedrow and Eskin’s Florida Debate Initiative—was ready to put debate back on the map across the state.

 

In FDI’s rookie year, the initiative didn’t just make a dent—it transformed the landscape, expanding debate programs from a mere 10 of Florida’s 74 school districts to an impressive 47. They didn’t just create a few new teams; they launched 161 new programs, setting up students statewide for success. The stats were impressive, but the real victory was the doors this initiative opened for students from all walks of life.

 

The mission was as bold: to ensure a debate program in all 67 Florida counties, so every student, regardless of where they came from, had a shot at top-notch competitive speech and debate training. The vision? Within five years, Florida would be a debate powerhouse, with competitive networks in place statewide, leveling the playing field for every student to experience the life-changing power of debate.

 

By November 2021, the initiative had scored a major win with the inaugural National Civics and Debate Championship in Orlando. For the first time, the best of the best in both high school and middle school were crowned national champions. 

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