Nebraska is partnering with conservative organization Turning Point USA to sponsor a chapter of Club America in every high school in the state. This was announced by Governor Jim Pillen on Feb. 10 at the governor’s mansion.
Pillen was joined with students from colleges across the state, including Emma Smith, a senior at Creighton University and the president of Turning Point’s chapter on campus.
Smith has been the president for a year now. She’s been working on restarting the club, and as of Feb. 24, she said that the chapter at Creighton has only had one meeting, but it has helped her find her voice and a sense of community.
“I think it’s really nice to have other students to connect with, especially on campus. Young Republicans isn’t a thing anymore … There’s not really a club for anybody with my similar viewpoints,” Smith elaborated. She expressed hopes that the new partnership will do the same for students in high schools across the state.
Smith denied that this was political action being taken by the governor. She conceded that even though Governor Pillen is Republican, she doesn’t view this as “indoctrination,” as she described.
“I don’t really think [that] at all. I mean, it’s your free will, you’re free to join this as an extra club, just like Young Republicans or Young Democrats … it’s not something that is forced upon you.”
The same view, that this motion was not politically motivated, was echoed by the governor and Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers at the announcement.
“This is the antidote to poison in our culture. It is young people, people of all ages who are approaching issues – not with violence and not with hate and not with yelling or disruption – they’re approaching it based out of love and joy and courage in talking about the things they believe in, using free speech in this constitutional structure that we’ve been gifted by generations before us,” Hilgers was quoted, according to a press release from the office of the governor.
But not everyone at Creighton agrees that the partnership between Turning Point USA and the Nebraska Governor is completely apolitical.
A junior economics student at Creighton who wished to remain anonymous was asked about their political experience at the Omaha high school they attended.
“I went to a private school. We were allowed to do a lot more in terms of social work and political work [since we] were a Catholic school, specifically a Jesuit one, we operate on the same principles [as] Creighton does. We were political non-partisan though,” they explained. “[My school] did a good job at describing value systems and asking you to decide which you align with.”
But even if that’s the explicit goal of the partnership between Turning Point USA and Nebraska, for this student, that’s not enough. In their opinion, a partnership between Turning Point, a “famously conservative” organization, and Nebraska would qualify as endorsement. They disagreed with the notion that it was simply for the promotion of free speech.
“If you’re arguing that these organizations should be in school on the matter of marketplace of ideas, then you have closed off half the marketplace,” they said, again alluding to Turning Point’s conservative values.
They argued that the state should push for an alternative “left-leaning” sponsored club to absolve the state of political indoctrination, or simply not partner with a political organization at all.
What exactly the state’s role in this partnership is, is unclear, because Pillen refused to take any questions at the announcement, according to KMTV.
Nick Cocca, the Club America enterprise director, said that state funding is not part of the partnership between the organization and Nebraska, according to Nebraska Public Media. However, schools who deny students from starting a chapter will face consequences, even if those consequences have not been outlined.