Florida
Florida Continues to Lead the Way in Civics Education – Welcoming More Than 400 Students from Out-of-State and Across Florida to Compete in The Great Debate: The National Civics and Debate ChampionshipFlorida Continues to Lead the Way in Civics Education – Welcoming More Th
January 24, 2025
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Florida Continues to Lead the Way in Civics Education – Welcoming More Than 400 Students from Out-of-State and Across Florida to Compete in The Great Debate: The National Civics and Debate Championship
Top Five High School Overall (Hunter Hayes – 5th, Sahiti Reddy – 2nd, Oscar Rubio Flores – 1st, Grace Jackson – 3rd, Anabel Kirkland – 4th)
Top Five Middle School Overall (Aryana Sahai – 1st – Coach standing in, Nathan Moronta – 5th, Armaan Seth – 2nd, Lara Castineyra – 3rd, Sara Khial – 4th)
Inspiring Coach Awards, ToryAnn Stutts, K. Morgan Mousley, Kristin Potter-Oliveri
Freedom Cup Winner, Erabelle Conant, Keystone Heights Jr. Sr. High School
Orlando, Fla., January 24, 2025 – This weekend, the Florida Civics and Debate Initiative (FCDI) brought together 420 middle and high school students from 72 schools across Florida and out-of-state to compete in The Great Debate: Florida’s National Civics and Debate Championship (NCDC) in Orlando. FCDI was proud to name tournament champions in Impromptu Speaking, Extemporaneous Debate and Legislative Debate.
The Great Debate was held at the Rosen Centre Hotel and Lake Buena Vista High School in Orlando. Since the inaugural event in 2021, the event has grown exponentially and garnered the attention of students nationwide who want to compete. Students from schools from Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada and Florida participated in this year’s event.
“Florida is at the forefront of civics education, and we are committed to continuing to provide opportunities for students to learn about the founding principles of our great Republic,” said Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. “Congratulations to the students who placed in The Great Debate competition. We’re excited to see how this initiative and this annual competition will continue to set the standard for civics education in the years to come, inspiring communities across Florida and the nation.”
“The Great Debate continues to evolve into a transformative event for students to access the highest quality educational opportunities – a cornerstone of the Florida Education Foundation’s mission,” said Rebecca Matthews, Board Chair of the Florida Education Foundation and University of West Florida Board Member. “Through this speech and debate competition, we have an opportunity for Florida students to compete at the highest level with students from across the country.”
As a hallmark event of FCDI, The Great Debate aims to inspire middle and high school students to engage in civics activities and elevate their civic knowledge. Established in January 2019, FCDI is dedicated to advancing civics education across the state.
The Great Debate named 8 winners between middle school and high school divisions. Judges scored students in Impromptu Speaking, Extemporaneous Debate and Legislative Debate, naming a winner for each event as well as an overall champion for both age groups.
Two additional awards, the Freedom Cup Award and Inspiring Coach Awards were also given during the ceremony. The Freedom Cup honors a student who embodies what it means to be a great citizen. Nominated by their students, three inspiring coaches are also honored for inspiring their students and excelling at the craft of speech and debate.
Overall – Middle School Division
- Champion – Aryana Sahai, A.D. Henderson University School
- 2nd Place – Armaan Seth, The Frazier School, Gainesville
- 3rd Place – Lara Castineyra, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville
- 4th Place – Sara Khial, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville
- 5th Place – Nathan Moronta, iPrep Academy North Middle School, Miami
Overall – High School Division
- Champion – Oscar Rubio Flores, Wildwood High School, Wildwood
- 2nd Place – Andria Antony, Hagerty High School, Oviedo
- 3rd Place – Grace Jackson, Hagerty High School, Oviedo
- 4th Place – Anabel Kirkland, Lake Nona High School, Orlando
- 5th Place – Hunter Hayes, Lake Nona High School, Orlando
Impromptu Speaking – Middle School Division
- Champion – Josh Kim, The Frazer School, Gainesville
- 2nd Place – Madison Lavidas, Randall Middle School, Lithia
- 3rd Place – Breanna Kopinski, Roulhac Middle School, Chipley
- 4th Place – Thomas Moywaywa, The Frazer School, Gainesville
- 5th Place – Ellington Smith, Oak View Middle School, Newberry
Impromptu Speaking – High School Division
- Champion – David Arutyunyan, FAU High School, Boca Raton
- 2nd Place – Grace Jackson, Hagerty High School, Oviedo
- 3rd Place – Jackson Buzzard, Broken Arrow Senior High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
- 4th Place – Jordan Miranda Juarez, Wildwood High School, Wildwood
- 5th Place – Peter Moywaya, The Frazer School, Gainesville
Extemporaneous Debate – Middle School Division
- Champion – Aryana Sahai, A.D. Henderson University School, Boca Raton
- 2nd Place – Nathan Moronta, iPrep Academy North Middle School, Miami
- 3rd Place – Gage Papp, A.D. Henderson University School, Boca Raton
- 4th Place – Lara Castineyra, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville
- 5th Place – Sara Khial, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville
Extemporaneous Debate – High School Division
- Champion – Noah De Haan, Tocoi Creek High School, St. Augustine
- 2nd Place – Nicholas Ostheimer, FAU High School, Boca Raton
- 3rd Place – Evden Tilley, Broken Arrow Senior High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
- 4th Place – Elizabeth Grounds, Broken Arrow Senior High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
- 5th Place – Graham Bowser, Broken Arrow Senior High School, Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Legislative Debate – Middle School Division
- Champion – Angela Ostheimer, A.D. Henderson University School, Boca Raton
- 2nd Place – Armaan, Seth, The Frazer School, Gainesville
- 3rd Place – Vincent Wen, The Frazer School, Gainesville
- 4th Place – Sara Khial, Kanapaha Middle School, Gainesville
- 5th Place – Emery Brooks, Seaside Neighborhood School, Santa Rosa Beach
Legislative Debate – High School Division
- Champion – Hunter Hayes, Lake Nona High School, Orlando
- 2nd Place – Sahiti Reddy, Tocoi Creek High School, St. Augustine
- 3rd Place – Andria Antony, Hagerty High School, Oviedo
- 4th Place – Grace M. Rivera Gonzalez, Lake Nona High School, Orlando
- 5th Place – Samantha Faucette, Apopka High School, Apopka
Inspiring Coach Award
- K. Morgan Mousley, Tocoi Creek High School, St. Augustine
- Kristin Potter-Oliveri, FAU High School/A.D. Henderson University School, Boca Raton
- ToryAnn Stutts, Orlando Science High School, Orlando
Freedom Cup Award
- Erabelle Conant, Keystone Heights Junior/Senior High School, Keystone Heights
View a full list of winners and learn more about the NCDC at www.TheGreatDebateFL.com.
ABOUT THE FLORIDA CIVICS AND DEBATE INITIATIVE:
Florida is leading the way in strengthening civics instruction and education in Florida’s kindergarten through post-secondary schools. In 2019, the Florida Department of Education and the Florida Education Foundation established a statewide debate program that focused on civics education. The Florida Civics and Debate Initiative (FCDI) is the first of its kind to use debate specifically as a tool to enrich civics education and to have incredibly strong support from state leaders. FCDI continues to grow exponentially and will soon have debate teams in every school district in Florida.
Read More News…
What if a state program were bleeding billions of taxpayer dollars, providing funds to nearly anyone who applied, with minimal oversight?
Fiscal conservatives would demand immediate intervention. They would call for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, insist on accountability from those in power, and demand swift action to protect public money.
While much public attention has focused on charter school expansion, including Schools of Hope, this discussion concerns a different program altogether: Florida’s rapidly expanding, taxpayer-funded voucher program.
That program, particularly the unchecked growth of the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES), now allows public dollars to fund private school and homeschool education on an unprecedented scale.
State officials tout a budget surplus, but independent analysts project that an additional $4–5 billion in annual voucher spending will lead to an imminent budget deficit.
The findings of a recent independent audit of FES are alarming. It examined what happens to these public funds and whether they truly “follow the child,” as Floridians were repeatedly promised.
They did not.
The auditor general was blunt: “Whatever can go wrong with this system has gone wrong.”
The audit raises more questions than answers:
— Why would state legislators steer a previously healthy state budget toward a projected deficit?
— Why is the state unable to account for roughly 30,000 students — representing approximately $270 million in taxpayer dollars — on any given day?
— And why is voucher spending deliberately obscured from public scrutiny by burying it in the public-school funding formula?
According to auditors, Florida’s voucher program has grown faster than the state’s ability to manage it. They identified gaps in real-time tracking, limited verification of eligibility and enrollment, and financial controls that have failed to keep pace with explosive growth.
These are not minor administrative errors; they are flashing warning lights.
Waste, fraud, and abuse are not partisan concerns; they are fiscal ones. Any government program that cannot clearly show where public dollars are or whether they are used appropriately represents a failure of the Legislature’s duty to safeguard taxpayer funds.
It is also important to be honest about what voucher growth truly represents. Despite frequent claims of a mass exodus from public schools, data show that roughly 70%of voucher recipients in recent years were not previously enrolled in public schools.
This is not a story of families fleeing public education. It is a story of public dollars being quietly redirected away from it.
That distinction matters because Florida’s public School Districts remain subject to strict accountability standards that do not apply to private or homeschool programs that receive voucher funds. Public schools must administer state assessments, publish performance data, comply with open-records laws, and undergo regular financial audits.
Public education across Florida is not stagnant. School Districts are actively innovating while serving as responsible stewards of public dollars by expanding career pathways, strengthening partnerships with local employers and higher education, and adapting to an increasingly complex choice landscape. When Districts are supported by stable policy and predictable funding, they lead.
But choice only works when transparency and quality accompany it. If state dollars support a student’s education, those dollars should be accompanied by state-level accountability, including meaningful oversight and participation in statewide assessments.
State dollars should meet state standards.
The audit also makes clear that technical fixes alone are insufficient. As long as voucher funding remains intertwined with public school funding formulas, billions of dollars in voucher spending will remain obscured from public scrutiny. The program must stand on its own.
Florida’s fiscally conservative Senators recognized this reality when they introduced SB318, a bipartisan bill to implement the auditor general’s recommendations and bring transparency and fiscal responsibility to school choice. The House must now follow suit.
Families like mine value school choice. But without meaningful reform, the current system is not financially sustainable.
Fiscal responsibility and educational opportunity are not competing values. Floridians must insist on both.
___
Liz Barker is a Sarasota County School Board member.
Bolstered by more than 300 Falcon 9 rocket launches — primarily from Florida’s Space Coast — SpaceX’s 9,000-plus Starlink high-speed internet satellites now serve more than 9 million customers in more than 155 countries and markets, the company reported last week.
Now, the burgeoning Starlink constellation is slated to expand again. SpaceX is targeting Thursday, Jan. 8, for an afternoon Falcon 9 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch window: 1:29 p.m. to 5:29 p.m.
The rocket will deploy 29 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit. Similarly, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster should wrap up its 29th mission by landing aboard the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles southeast of the Cape.
FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage of Thursday’s Starlink 6-96 mission will kick off roughly 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space.
The first launch of 2026 from Florida’s Space Coast took flight at 1:48 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4. That’s when a Falcon 9 lifted off from the Space Force installation, then deployed a batch of 29 Starlink satellites.
What’s more, SpaceX has another Starlink mission in store this upcoming weekend. More details:
- Launch window: 1:34 p.m. to 5:34 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10.
- Trajectory: Southeast.
- Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
- Sonic booms: No.
In a 2025 progress report, Starlink officials reported crews equipped more than 1,400 commercial aircraft with Starlink antennae last year. That represents nearly four times the number of aircraft outfitted during 2024.
More than 21 million passengers experienced Starlink’s “at-home-like internet” last year aboard United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JSX, WestJet, Qatar Airways, Air France, Emirates, Air New Zealand and airBaltic flights, per the report.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
Space is important to us and that’s why we’re working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
Former Georgia Tech interior offensive lineman Harrison Moore is expected to transfer to Florida, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz.
The direct connection between Moore and Florida is offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner. Moore, a former three-star recruit, played in 10 games as a true freshman under Faulkner, playing 184 total snaps at left guard, center and tight end. Pro Football Focus gave him a 68.8 offensive grade — No. 12 among freshman interior linemen with 100 or more snaps — 67.8 run-blocking grade and 72.0 pass-blocking grade.
He became a starter in 2025 — five games at left guard and four at center — playing 11 games. His PFF grades took a dip to 63.6, 65.5 and 68.4, respectively, but still ranked inside the top 30 among underclassmen with 500 or more snaps.
247Sports ranks Moore No. 229 overall among all players in the 2026 transfer portal cycle and No. 11 among interior offensive linemen.
Florida’s interior offensive line room
Florida’s interior offensive line returns starting left guard Knijeah Harris and backup guards Roderick Kearney and Tavaris Dice Jr. Moore slots in nicely at center with All-American Jake Slaughter out of eligibility and Marcus Mascoll moving on. Noel Portnjagin and Marcus Mascoll are in the portal, and Damieon George Jr. and Kamryn Waites have exhausted their eligibility.
Moore would compete with redshirt freshman Jason Zandamela for the starting center role, or Kearney could move to center and Moore could play guard.
Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
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