Javan Mei (288)

As the 2025 school year began, multiple clubs at Central High School awoke to a shocking revelation: the funding they had relied on for years up until that point from the After School Activities Partnership (ASAP) had been cut following extensive budget cuts. Now, many Central clubs like the Debate Team have been left to fend for themselves. In order to keep up their mission of helping students build confidence and public speaking skills, they needed another way to secure the funds they needed.

One of these ways has been through the organization of a bake sale; on January 8th, 2026, the Debate team organized a sale in the morning to raise money for the upcoming tournaments at UPenn and Pennsbury. A different and more extensive way has been to ask those wishing to join or those already attending to pitch in money for the team to keep attending the tournaments they wanted to. These tireless efforts by the Debate cabinet have allowed the club to keep operations and not require any fees to attend tournaments (which can get expensive!).

Following these efforts, the club sponsor, Mr. De La Osa, was interviewed for his input on this situation and how he manages to keep the club going without the previous funding. “My particular view is [that] this situation is unfortunate, that an after-school program which promotes important skills in the workplace loses funding because these clubs help our students further develop public speaking and research skills outside the classroom. I wish that more – not just ASAP – after-school programs are more funded because students need more to do than just classwork every day,” he said.

Furthermore, one of those debaters who’d volunteered at the bake sale was interviewed for their input on how club activities have been impacted by the sudden need for funding. Siting Liang (287) said, “The debate team already didn’t have much funding to begin with, so this funding cut places us [in] an extremely sad situation. However, Ms. Sheldon-Matje and Mr. De La Osa were able to figure things out for us and allowed us to compete in tournaments free of charge. I think this is an amazing opportunity for anyone to make their way through without the need to cough up money they might not have.”

The future of many clubs at Central remains uncertain. After all, everyone does need money. But through the trials and tribulations of the recent budget cuts, they will continue finding new inventive ways of keeping the club afloat. Now, Central kids may have the same opportunities as other schools to build their public speaking skills and confidence in the future.