Before you read the rest of this, I wrote a more in depth article about this issue. Please read it here:

https://www.equalityinforensics.org/blog/eliminating-competition-caps-in-debate

The Idaho High School Activities Association (IHSAA) has long restricted the amount of tournaments that debaters can attend to 10. Initially, this rule has only applied to individuals, but now they are trying to apply this rule to entire teams.

Here is an example: If my team went to 9 local tournaments, and I attended none of those, but then I proceeded to go to 2 tournaments on my own, my entire team would be disqualified from the state tournament.

The tournament cap has been problematic in the past for students wishing to compete on the highest levels for college scholarships because those scholarships generally require competitive efforts outside of what teams in Idaho do and outside the state in general. This new change would effectively make it impossible for students to compete at the highest levels and would close Idaho students off from opportunities to receive scholarships and admission to universities like Emory, Wake Forest, and more. 

Please sign this petition to make your voice heard. This change is not final and will the proposition will be voted for on October 6-7.