Debate Score: Prison 1 - Harvard 0

by Kim D.

Recently Harvard's debate team won a national title. Then the team faced off against three prisoners from NY's Eastern Correctional Facility and were whooped.

harvard vs. prison (the inmates won) http://t.co/pE8ggpBYw9 pic.twitter.com/kdBgcrgCFh

— Audrey Buchanan (@A_Buchanan) October 8, 2015

The inmates were asked to argue that public schools should be allowed to deny enrollment to undocumented students, a position the team opposed.One of the judges, Mary Nugent, told the Wall Street Journal that the Bard team effectively made the case that the schools which serve undocumented children often underperformed. The debaters proposed that if these so-called dropout factories refuse to enroll the children, then nonprofits and wealthier schools might intercede, offering the students better educations. She told the paper that Harvard’s debaters did not respond to all aspects of the argument.