As a nonpartisan, national student newspaper, The SUNN Post is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions on political issues. After Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen announced a partnership last month with the right-wing political organization Turning Point USA to expand the group’s “Club America” chapters at high schools in the state, we reached out to two local students to hear differing reactions. This is a perspective by Madeline Petrick, a senior at Gretna East High School in Omaha, who opposes the plan. You can read an op-ed from a student who largely supports the plan here.
At a Feb. 10 press conference, Governor Jim Pillen claimed he doesn’t see “anything political” about his partnership with Turning Point USA to expand Club America chapters to more Nebraska high schools — according to him, the initiative is simply “right and wrong, God and Satan.” But the president of the Club America chapter at Creighton University in Omaha, Emma Smith, who also spoke at the press conference, told a different story.
“The future of the conservative movement is not waiting until our graduation,” she said. “It’s already happening. It’s already starting chapters. Already stepping into leadership. And already changing the culture.”
Smith’s words highlight the root of the problem with this initiative: Club America isn’t trying to create space for free expression of differing views. Instead, they’re trying to reshape school culture in favor of a dominant conservative perspective
It’s no secret that Club America’s parent organization, Turning Point USA, is stoking the flames of a politically divided country. Students widely understand that TPUSA and its Club America chapters promote conservative ideologies. A state governor announcing a statewide partnership with a conservative organization indicates a dangerous governmental overstep into an area that should be left to students and sets a dangerous precedent for students’ freedom of expression in school settings.
The Nebraska State Education Association responded to Pillen’s announcement in a statement on Feb. 10.
“Public schools must remain politically neutral environments,” the Association said. “Educators and school leaders have a responsibility to ensure that no political organization is perceived as endorsed by the state or embedded within public school systems in a way that compromises that neutrality…Decisions about student activities are best made locally by school boards, administrators, educators, parents and students — not through a statewide mandate.”
As the NSEA expressed in their statement, Pillen’s initiative indicates an irresponsible overstep. When the government supports the creation of a club promoting one political perspective without equivalent support for alternate perspectives, they not only risk stigmatizing the unprotected ideology—they also rob students of the opportunity to proactively advocate the creation of groups aligned with their political interests. Nebraska, and all of the states that have “partnered” with TPUSA Montana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Florida and Texas — shouldn’t turn students into political bait for a specific movement.
While supporters of the initiative argue that the Club America chapters are designed to engage students with diverse perspectives in political conversations, TPUSA, Pillen and all other supporters make it clear that’s not the case. TPUSA calls their programs the “largest conservative student movement in the nation.” They also include resources on their TPUSA Students website to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom” and to “actively identify school districts across the country that are abusing their power to push Leftist, racist, and anti-American propaganda.” Public school systems partnering with a nationally recognized conservative organization doesn’t expand civic engagement—it narrows it to a single political perspective, and in turn shuts dissenting student voices out of political conversations.
Furthermore, this partnership also raises concerns about the doors it opens. If the governor can promote a partnership with a political organization to push clubs into schools, what’s stopping similar efforts to push political agendas onto public school curricula?
Perhaps the most reassuring consolation in the face of these troubling questions is that the likelihood of Pillen’s dream coming to fruition seems extraordinarily low. The plan to implement a Club America chapter in every Nebraska high school is about as concrete as Club America is nonpartisan. The other states that have attempted similar “partnerships” have all failed to get clubs going in every school. Legally, they have no way of mandating club chapters’ existence if students at a particular school aren’t interested. Practically, they have no bandwidth to oversee the establishment and operation of these clubs across their respective states.
According to Pillen, Nebraska currently has 22 high school Club America chapters across the state’s 268 high schools. This number isn’t low because starting chapters has previously been impossible—students simply haven’t been interested. Over 90% of Nebraska high schools don’t have a chapter. In a predominantly red state, it becomes difficult to attribute that gap to social pressures. More likely, it results from political apathy and general disinterest in the organization.
Even though Pillen’s plan isn’t a mandate, the precedent it sets is alarming. Public schools should serve students of all beliefs and perspectives, without endorsement or favoritism of particular ideologies. Civic engagement should be encouraged for everyone, not just the political party that a politician wants the next generation to align itself with. Protecting freedom of expression, rather than steering it in a preferred direction, is what makes public schools and the country truly open to all.