An Underfunded Mock Trial Team

By: Tania Salceda

During my time on my high school’s Mock Trial team, I came to understand that my team was heavily underfunded compared to others. Could this be a result of California’s inequitable public school funding? Of course it was. 

I vividly remember my Mock Trial coach, who was also an English teacher at my high school, providing us with pre-packaged Uncrustable peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I was always grateful for these snacks, but I remember that other teams had food ranging from gourmet catering to pizza delivered in between their rounds. Those teams were from better-funded parts of the county I attended high school in. 

Additionally, when my team advanced further in the competition, we were unable to take all members due to our lack of funding. It was hard not being able to see all of my teammates present to relish in our accomplishments, while other schools brought all their members and sometimes even two teams.

At my public California high school our clubs and academic teams’ funding was all dependent on our fundraising efforts. This meant an additional burden for students, on top of academics and other extracurriculars. 

California public schools need more funding. With more funding, extracurricular activities like mock trial can be well-resourced.