Coolidge Foundation highlights debate program and national scholarship at Mountain Lake event

Panelists described the Coolidge Foundation's educational outreach, including a debate program that pairs historical instruction with competitive argumentation and a national scholarship that selects five winners from about 4,000 applicants. Amity Shlaes said the Foundation aims to teach history alongside communication skills so students anchor policy arguments in historical context.

"We make sure the students learn history," Shlaes said, describing the Foundation's debate director, Jonathan Peel, and outreach in several states. She and other trustees noted that the Foundation's programs already reach about 1,000 young people and that Florida-based judges and participants have been involved in scholarship selection.

Speakers encouraged continuing civic education as a long-term, slow process: "It'll be 20 years before those products of your programs will be running for office or running businesses," Shlaes said, urging governors and school leaders to persist through slow timelines.

The panel closed by thanking Bok Tower Gardens and Mountain Lake for hosting a statue unveiling and by inviting interested audiences to follow the Foundation's livestreams and local programming.