Abortion rights is an appropriate topic for high school students in the persuasive category. Abortion rights continues to be in the news and could be considered as a policy speech as well. Students taking the pro-abortion position rely heavily on Supreme Court decision Roe vs. Wade for the bulk of their evidence, as well as more current legislation to keep abortion safe and legal for women. Students on the anti-abortion side can draw from a plethora of recent state and federal legislation and research limiting the types of abortions that are legal, as well as new requirements for pre-abortion counseling. There are also many current court decisions students can use for both pro-abortion speeches as well as anti-abortion speeches. This topic area is not appropriate for middle school students.
Genetic engineering is an appropriate policy or persuasion speech topic for both middle school and high school students and is widely in the news. Research in this area is constantly changing and evolving, so sources for information on this topic are readily available. Narrow the focus of the topic for middle school students to simple for or against genetic engineering, what it is and how it would affect society. High school students can delve deeper into the topic by also covering the different types of genetic engineering, what it is used for and its moral and physical implications.
Global warming is a hot button issue for both environmentalists and those wishing to expand the use of our natural resources. It can easily be a persuasion speech topic, policy speech topic or a combination of the two. Global warming deals with many areas, including off shore drilling, automobile emissions and greenhouse gases, so there are many directions a student can take with this topic. Encourage middle school students to focus their speeches on the basic idea of global warming, how it is caused and what we should do about it. Require high school students to document case studies on different areas and provide current legislation and its impact on the environment to make their speeches more challenging and relevant.
Universal health care is a topic readily available to both middle and high school students for speech competitions and speech classes. There are many ways to approach this topic, and it can easily be used for both policy speeches and persuasion speeches. Current legislation, countries with universal health care and areas of the world where health care is unavailable are all places to being with a universal health care speech. Middle school students will enjoy persuasion speeches on this topic, with the opportunity for rebuttal for those who are for or against. High school speeches should also be persuasive, but should focus more on persuading the audience about policy changes that need to be made either for universal health care or against it.