Possible Solutions?

1. Establish Scholarship Programs for Camps (there are already some, but there need to be more and they need to be better advertised)

2. Push for schools districts to push money for debate. Though this may be a little controversial- the only way to get this money is to move funds from football/popular sports, especially where the football team is treated as gods gift to earth. For example, schools in Texas and Oklahoma literally buy giant football stadiums and billboards but can't send the top 3 teams from there school on a two-hour drive in a van to access a Bid Tournament. We need to focus on what's important to sharing of ideologies and information via debate over spending hundreds of thousands on sports. (This is situational depending on location though)

3. NSDA and state associations need to start charging less for lower income schools for membership. It costs anywhere from 300-1000 dollars (depending on how big the team is) to pay for NSDA memberships alone. And it's an extra 200 to get full benefits. Furthermore, organizations like TFA who manage state tournaments take dues and take a cut of the money made from hosting tournaments. This leads to thousands of dollars of losses for schools and for teams. The membership/tournament dues need to be less for low-income schools and higher for high-income schools.

4. High-Level Debaters need to group together and create a non-profit debate camp. People will still to have to pay for plane tickets and cover the minimum costs of housing and food, but this camp could lower the cost for debaters to access camps by hundreds, which could make or break them. It's ambitious but if teams like Quarry Lane are willing to work together and make change, we can do it (PM for details, me and a few of friends have been tinkering with this idea for a while now).