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Posted on 09/27/2025 5:34:13 AM PDT by jacknhoo
(The Center Square) - Former Oklahoma schools Superintendent Ryan Walters announced this past week a partnership with Turning Point USA to initiate chapters at every high school in the state.
Since the brutal assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, many have debated what this means for freedom of speech and freedom of religion in America. Schools and colleges across the country have started TPUSA chapters, growing the conservative movement in a matter of days.
TPUSA posted on X that six days after Kirk’s killing, the organization received 54,000 requests from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing chapter.
The organization previously reported having only around 1,000 chapters on high school campuses and 800+ chapters on college campuses.
Kirk founded Turning Point in 2012 at the age of 18. Headquartered in Phoenix, the nonprofit seeks to advocate for conservative policies on high school and college campuses.
TPUSA wants to help students in public school, private school, or homeschool systems to establish chapters on their respective campuses.
Launching a chapter requires at least three students at a school and completion of the Chapter Charter Agreement, according to the Oklahoma Department of Education’s press release.
The Chapters will also receive an Activism Kit filled with pins, a pocket Constitution, handbooks and other materials, the press release stated.
“We will be putting TPUSA on every high school campus in Oklahoma. Charlie Kirk inspired a generation to love America, to speak boldly, and to never shy away from debate. Our kids must get involved and active,” said Walters. “We will fight back against the liberal propaganda pushed by the radical left and the teachers' unions. Our fight starts now.”
On Friday, Walters announced he was resigning as superintendent and will now become CEO of the Teacher Freedom Alliance.
The U.S. Department of Education announced last week its partnership with TPUSA and 40 other organizations to launch the 250 Americas Civic Education Coalition to help teach civic literacy to young students in the country.
This coalition’s goal is “to ensure every young American understands the beauty of our nation and is equipped with the civic knowledge required to contribute meaningfully to its future,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said.
Meanwhile, another development in the Kirk assassination case came Thursday with the announcement that the Utah County Commission unanimously approved a contract to appoint Kathryn Nester as the defense attorney for Tyler James Robinson, 22, who has been charged with aggravated murder, discharge of a firearm causing bodily harm, two counts of obstruction of justice and two counts of witness tampering, all of which are felonies. Robinson was also charged with a misdemeanor: committing a violent act in the presence of a child.
Robinson continues to remain incarcerated at Utah County Jail without bail. Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray has said he will seek the death penalty.
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And Marxism.
Correct.
Cries of “church and state” in......... 3,...2... Even though the fidiots have totally misunderstood that phrase because, well because they are fidiots.
JUST DO IT QUIETLY!!
Don’t schools have debate teams any more? That would go a long way to educating kids about the issues and about the system
I had a note from a friend about a high school in Oregon. The town is actually fairly conservative, but the school denied the students approval to start a Turning Point Chapter. The parents are outraged & making a fuss about that decision. We really need to clean the leftists out of our schools.
They ought to just start it, unsanctioned. Convene, impromptu, in the library, the parking lot, the lawn outside, wherever, and just start it.
I’ll guarantee you that if school administration is involved, then this is a ploy to turn TP into a liberal program that will be advocating for DEI trans-rights and other woke bullshit.
Interesting, Florida isn’t doing this.
You would think DeSantis would want to take the lead after the nationwide AFT and its high octane law firm rode into town in 2024 and then in November of that year kicked the tar out of the Hillsborough County Commission and the local school board.
Then extracted at the ballot box a mind-boggling twenty-four thousand dollar pay hike over 4 years for the county’s 15,000 woke public school classroom teachers, on the backs of the county’s largely conservative and already overburdened property taxpayers, the homeowners.
Hillsborough County is a big one, with population approaching 2 million as we speak.
Charlie often railed against the toxic combination of high pay for the left’s indoctrinators allied to substandard reading and math performance by students at the K-12 level nationwide, as well as in Florida’s few deeply blue counties such as Hillsborough.
State and county governments willing to stand up to public-employee labor unions (a scourge on America needing to be abolished) are rare to non-existent.
That’s why you’ll never hear one word spoken about TPUSA coming to the Sunshine State’s public schools any time soon.
GREAT!
They ought to just start it...
Yes, but it is a little kick in the shins to the leftists to make them sanction it. :-)
Report back if you learn anything more about this. There are two quite different issues that could be in play. The defensible position is that the school has a strict policy, even handedly enforced, about extracurricular organizations. And there's a distinction to be made there between school sponsored clubs -- the debate team, the football team, the art club, whatever -- and organizations sponsored by outside groups. If something is allowed for X, is it allowed for Y?
Which brings us to the other question that many of us reflexively suspect might be lurking here. Is this a matter of overt viewpoint discrimination by the school administrators? It's Oregon. What snakes are in the grass?
Your comment about a school’s denial of permission for a TP chapter: “Which brings us to the other question that many of us reflexively suspect might be lurking here. Is this a matter of overt viewpoint discrimination by the school administrators? It’s Oregon. What snakes are in the grass?”
Agreed, but it’s broader than that. Is it viewpoint discrimination if all high schools in Oklahoma, through official government edict, must start TP chapters, but not Democratic Socialists of America chapters? What if Oregon or New York schools are ordered to start DSA but not TP chapters?
I don’t like the whole idea of public school administrators picking one preferred viewpoint. They’re government officials. They should stay neutral.
Agreed.
But per the linked story, the state doesn’t seem to be involved at this point. TPUSA is partnering with a FORMER State Superintendant of Education to start chapters in all Illinois schools.
So far, so good. That’s all non-governmental.
The next order question is what are the state rules governing outside groups wanting to do something in the schools. That can get tricky fast. Are there Young Republican, Young Democrat, or Democratic Socialists of America chapters? Are there Christian, Jewish or Muslim groups? Can the NRA or the Sierra Club sponsor chapters? Expand the list as far as we want.
To do these things in the schools, does one need a faculty sponsor or the support and leadership of a group of parents of currently enrolled parents? Or does the principal have the arbitrary power to approve or disapprove?
There’s an argument to be made for the after hours use of school facilities as community meeting spaces. In many communities, the schools have by far the best spaces in town, followed by some of the larger churches. But that raises the question of cost sharing for utilities, janitorial services and basic security. The complications go on and on. If the community is awash in old fashioned civic spirit and a sense of fair play, people work these things out amicably.
But it doesn’t take too many turds in the punch bowl to scuttle open cooperation and accommodation.
In this case, I’m guessing that TPUSA chapters will want to be recognized as sanctioned school activities. That will require even handed administration of facially neutral rules. And THAT can get tricky fast.
Thanks! I overlooked that the State Superintendent of Education had left his government job. He immediately turned around and started on this project, so it might be a little shady in that he’s exploiting his contacts in the bureaucracy. That’s why officials leaving some federal jobs have to wait a certain time (I think a year is common) before lobbying their former agency. But it does make at least some difference that the guy isn’t currently in government.
OTOH, the linked article also reports on a federal Department of Education initiative of a “Civics Coalition” about school curricula. The list of coalition members is here:
https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-afpi-tpusa-hillsdale-college-and-over-40-national-and-state-organizations-launch-america-250-civics-coalition
Some of the names I don’t recognize. Among the ones that I know, however, every single one is conservative.
I keep coming back to “what if they did it.” In 2029, the President might be Gavin Newsom or some other Democrat. The new left-wing Secretary of Education announces that federal funds will be used to support a coalition of the ACLU and the Sierra Club and the Southern Poverty Law Center and so on, to teach what THEY see as civic values. Some Freepers might change their views about the proper role of government.
“Don’t schools have debate teams any more? “
Kinda....kinda not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FPsEwWT6K0
In my high school back in the 70s, we had a Bible club that was not allowed to meet on campus, so we met every Monday night at different homes.. always had between 20-50 people and our student body President wound up becoming a pastor!
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