The state superintendent in Oklahoma announced plans to put Turning Point USA chapters in every high school in the state, saying it would counter “radical leftist teachers’ unions” and their “woke indoctrination”.
After far-right activist Charlie Kirk was killed on a college campus earlier this month, requests to start chapters of his conservative youth group, Turning Point, at colleges and high schools have surged, the organization has said.
Oklahoma is the first state where the government is getting involved to promote starting these chapters. In a press release Tuesday, Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma superintendent, detailed how students could start a chapter of “Club America”, the organization’s high school program, by gathering at least three students from the same school and completing a charter agreement. Then, Turning Point will help the club get a teacher sponsor and official recognition, and send materials like an “activism kit”.
“We will be putting TPUSA on every high school campus in Oklahoma,” Walter said in the press release. “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. We will fight back against the liberal propaganda, pushed by the radical left, and the teachers unions. Our fight starts now.”
In a video posted on X, Walters railed further against the “radical leftists” who “dominate classrooms and push woke indoctrination”. “They fight parents’ rights, they push parents out of the classroom and they lie to our kids about American history,” he said. The Turning Point chapters would allow kids to participate in “dialogue about American greatness, a dialogue around American values”.
When asked by a local reporter what would happen in a school that said it wouldn’t open a chapter of the group, Walters said he would go after the school’s accreditation. “They would be in danger of not being a school district if they decided to reject a club that is here to promote civic engagement,” he said. “Everything would be on the table in that scenario.”
Nadine Gallagher, a teacher in Oklahoma, told local news station KOCO that if students wanted to start a club, she’s “all for it”. But, she said, “I don’t like forced anything.”
Andrew Kolvet, the spokesman for Turning Point USA, said the group has received a “massive surge of inquiries to start new chapters”, particularly after Sunday’s memorial for Kirk.
“We are now at over 120,000 inquiries. Even accounting for attrition and duplicates, we are on the cusp of having a TPUSA or Club America chapter in every HS and College campus in America,” Kolvet wrote on X.
Turning Point chapters organize around conservative principles, and the organization’s activism kits “promote issues ranging from voter registration, free speech and gun access, to kits entitled ‘Make America Healthy Again’”, according to USA Today. Other projects of Turning Point include a “professor watchlist” and school board watchlist that identifies people who have leftwing views. Turning Point chapters on college campuses also host conservative speakers.
Kirk often went on college speaking tours to debate students and advanced views in person and on his podcast that were at times racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory, including that there was a “great replacement strategy” underway via immigration, that Islam is a “a threat to America” and that “in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people”.
Walters has come under fire for repeated instances of pushing religion and rightwing politics in Oklahoma schools. He has sought to require schools in the state to show a video of him praying. He pushed to create the country’s first Catholic public charter school, which the US supreme court ruled against in May.
He bought Donald Trump-branded Bibles that he wants to put in classrooms. He has installed prominent rightwing figures such as the activist behind the anti-LGBTQ+ group Libs of TikTok and the leader of the Heritage Foundation on state education committees.
He has also said that he wants to require teachers coming to teach in Oklahoma from liberal states to complete an “America First” certification. He pushed to include 2020 election fraud conspiracies in the state’s high school social studies curriculum.
Walters also put out a press release on 17 September claiming that teachers who made derogatory comments about Kirk after his death would be fired.
Walters said his office had received 224 reports of “defamatory comments” about Kirk by school staff, 30 reports of “not observing a moment of silence” and three reports of schools that refused to lower their flags for Kirk. The department identified 70 certified teachers who “have made statements regarding Charlie Kirk’s murder”.
“Any teacher posting defamatory and egregious comments will NOT be teaching in Oklahoma classrooms and any school that refused to participate in a moment of silence and/or lower their flags for Charlie Kirk is currently under investigation,” the press release said.
Oklahoma ranks among the lowest states in public education, with one recent survey putting the state at 50th place.
