What We’re About

Mission

The Baltimore Urban Debate League promotes the use of argumentation and debate as tools to engage students in critical thinking and develop educated, informed, and confident voices that improve life opportunities.

Vision

We seek a world where each student can grow their voice and have opportunities to meaningfully and authentically exercise their voice in public discourse throughout their life.

Values

Service to the Community

Our services and programs meet real academic and social needs.

Collaboration

We co-create our work with partners internally and externally.

Equity

We meet each person where they are and assure they have what they need to be successful.

Continuous Improvement

We take every experience as an opportunity to improve our and our stakeholders’ capabilities.

History

BUDL was founded in 1999 as part of a national initiative driven by the Open Society Institute to transform public education by bringing the activity of debate back to the urban classroom.

From the League’s modest beginnings in 1999 when 90 pioneering students and 16 teachers in 8 of the City’s most challenged neighborhood high schools began to learn the skills and techniques of competitive policy debate, the League has expanded to involve more than 1,000 elementary, middle, and high school students and more than 75 BCPSS teachers from 35 high schools and 25 middle schools each year in a rigorous program of after-school debate training, independent research activities, debate team practice sessions, and monthly competitive policy debate tournaments.

Today the Baltimore Urban Debate League is America’s largest and most successful urban debate league, a flagship within an urban debate movement which now includes over 400 public schools from urban debate leagues in 16 of the nation’s largest cities.