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 Addeline Kastens, a junior at Papillion LaVista South High School outside of Omaha, who is largely in favor of the plan. You can read a perspective from a student who opposes the plan here.
When Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen announced his plan last month to support the expansion of Club America chapters in our state’s high schools, in partnership with Turning Point USA, I thought back to my surprisingly positive experience reporting on the first meeting of such a chapter at my own school, Papillion LaVista South, for our scholastic news magazine.
I’m a conservative-leaning student, but I didn’t expect to like what I saw and heard at that first meeting. I was expecting a MAGA fest — whereas I don’t eat, breathe, and sleep Trump. I’m guided by religion rather than politics; and while that tends to align more with the right, as in my belief that everyone has the right to live, including the unborn, I also hold some liberal values, like LGBTQ+ rights and protection of our environment. That’s why I don’t affiliate with a political party and am committed to keeping an open political mind as I get closer to voting age.
But the Club America meeting turned out to be a place for students of many shades of conservatism to share ideas in a safe space, which matters since support for young conservatives is scarce. The group also genuinely welcomed students with opposing liberal views, holding free speech as a core value and encouraging respectful debate — including on topics like the political figures that inspire us most and the recent events that have had the biggest impact on politically active teenagers. Rather than being just a classroom of mostly conservatives, it was a classroom of students participating in one of the most productive ways one can in a democracy.
By the end of the meeting, I knew I would join Club America if my busy work and extracurricular schedule actually allowed it (which it doesn’t).
But when it comes to the governor’s plan, more important than how I feel about the group is that the formation of political clubs at high schools is a form of free speech, and the state’s effort to protect that expression is warranted and important. Nick Cocca, Club America Enterprise Director for TPUSA, who was present at the announcement event at the governor’s mansion on Feb. 10, has shared the most detail on what the plan may entail: He told Nebraska Public Media that the plan doesn’t come with any state funding and that TPUSA relies on interested students to initiate formation of a Club America chapter. From there, TPUSA provides organizational support. When the group forms partnerships with states, he went on, the states act as a failsafe if school administrators try to deny students the opportunity to start a chapter within a school.
That’s why I’m in favor of this plan: Governor Pillen is making it easier for students to access their rights and feel supported while doing so.
Now, I should caveat that some initially interpreted the governor’s partnership with the conservative-leaning group as a mandate, since Pillen initially said the partnership with TPUSA is aimed at bringing Club America chapters “to all high schools” in the cornhusker state. A spokesperson later confirmed it’s not a mandate, and I wouldn’t support the plan if it was. But if there is student demand for a club, it should be possible to start one — and Pillen’s plan may help remove barriers.
While the Equal Access Act of 1984 and a subsequent Supreme Court ruling established that administrators at public high schools with at least one extracurricular club can’t refuse to allow students to form a political club, Cocca said support from governors is still necessary. He suggested there had been instances of students seeking to start a chapter at schools in Florida, Texas, Tennessee, or Montana who had faced pushback, and that the formation of similar partnerships in those states had provided backup of sorts.
This kind of pushback also seems to have happened in other states, at some high schools and at private colleges (where there is more discretion in barring clubs). At Clinton High School in Clinton, MI last year, sources told a local news outlet that school administrators initially gave three separate reasons for pumping the brakes on the formation of a Club America chapter, including that the club was too political and divisive. The district later denied this was one of the reasons. At Creighton University in my state, the restarting of a Turning Point USA chapter was delayed in part because of fear of community backlash.
Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State Education Association, argued that Pillen’s partnership with TPUSA effectively endorsed a political agenda in schools, telling the Nebraska Examiner that “public schools must remain politically neutral environments.” But school environments don’t have to be totally politically neutral, since the 1969 Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines ruled that students and teachers do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
Plus, there’s a difference between political neutrality in a school curriculum (which I support) and at extracurricular clubs. It would be problematic if the governor were saying a school lesson plan should support a political ideology or movement — but a club is different, since they’re not a part of the curriculum and students opt into them.
If anything, Pillen’s plan promotes inclusion, by making sure conservative-leaning students who want to form a Club America chapter feel they’ll have support to do so rather than opposition. I suspect that if he had started a partnership with some kind of pride group or LGBTQ+ rights organization, the plan would be seen as a step in the right direction to ensure every student feels represented. We should look at the governor’s Club America partnership through the same lens.
I’m excited about the prospect of more students feeling supported to form Club America chapters in part because I’ve seen for myself that they give students the chance to speak freely and express what they believe on both sides of the political aisle. Paul Connot, the president of my high school’s chapter who attended the governor’s announcement event, acknowledged in the first school meeting he held that while members generally lean conservative, all are welcome. In an interview for the story I wrote for my paper about the first meeting, Connot said of conversations in the room with liberals, “It was friendly, but we still challenged one another.” He added, “It’s nice to talk those opinions out.”
But fundamentally, the governor’s plan to support students who want to start Club America chapters is a step in the right direction for leveling out the political playing field on campuses by defending free speech. Everyone should be able to start a club that aligns with their values and interests — regardless of what those might be.