BOISE, Idaho — Idaho officials are encouraging high school students to start or join chapters of a conservative group that has in the past advocated for political candidates including President Donald Trump and has called to mobilize the country’s most “spirited, anti-woke warriors.”

Last week, Gov. Brad Little signed a proclamation that affirmed the state’s commitment to upholding the principles of the First Amendment in public schools and praised Turning Point USA for providing opportunities for young people to participate in the free exchange of ideas. The governor read and signed the document while surrounded by students with signs reading “Club America in every Idaho high school.” He was joined by State Superintendent Debbie Critchfield.

Turning Point in July announced Club America as a “bold new high school chapter-based program designed to mobilize students who are ready to lead” and “stand for the tried-and-true American values of freedom, free markets, and limited government.”

The proclamation comes after a gunman last year shot and killed Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk while he was speaking at Utah Valley University. After his death, people across the country, including in Idaho, held memorials for him, while others who spoke out against Kirk were fired from their jobs or faced other consequences. Turning Point USA is a conservative group that has been celebrated by Trump’s administration and has received criticism for some of its views.

After Kirk’s death, Trump released a message calling for Americans to “commit themselves” to Kirk’s values.

In the proclamation, the governor embraced the conservative group.

“We pledge a commitment to preserving opportunities for civil discourse, open dialogue, and civic engagement within our public school system,” the proclamation reads. “I encourage any student who is interested in leading or joining a Club America or Turning Point USA chapter to do so.”

‘Freedom and American values’

Speaking before he signed the proclamation, Little talked about the difficulty of maintaining a republic, and the importance of young people engaging with and understanding their government. He said he was glad to partner with Turning Point USA in its effort to establish chapters in high schools across the country.

“The mission is simple,” he said, “to organize students and young people to support freedom and American values.”

In a post on X, Little said he was proud to welcome Turning Point USA students to the Capitol to support their “mission of promoting civic engagement across the nation.”

“In Idaho, we are empowering students across the state to be the next generation of leaders,” he wrote.

Critchfield also praised Turning Point clubs.

“What a comfort it is to know that behind me are those that are ready to step forward and to take on the leadership roles,” she said during the event. “As we talk about civic engagement and just being a problem solver in our schools and in our communities, it has to and must start with our young people.”

She also applauded Idaho for creating an environment that allows students to lead, start new initiatives and remain engaged.

In a statement after the signing, State Department of Education spokesperson Andrea Dearden said the governor’s proclamation supported students’ First Amendment rights, and that the agency encourages all students to take part in activities and organizations that matter to them.

“Nothing in this proclamation forces or requires involvement in any specific organization or club,” she said in an emailed statement to the Statesman. “Superintendent Critchfield regularly attends education-related events when invited by student leaders, and this was one of those opportunities.”

She added that even though the governor referenced Club America, Idaho students have the freedom to form clubs that “reflect their own interests and values.”

Turning Point USA said in a post on its website that Idaho is one of a number of states to partner with Club America.

Officials sought to restrict politics in schools

The proclamation comes after the Idaho Legislature passed a law last year that bars staff from displaying flags or banners in public schools that “promote political, religious, or ideological viewpoints,” including race, gender, sexual orientation and political ideologies.

Even before the law was passed, administrators in the West Ada School District told a teacher to take down posters she had hanging in her classroom for years, one of which read “Everyone is welcome here” and included illustrated hands of different skin tones. The request came years after the school district passed its own policy putting restrictions on what teachers could hang in their classrooms, and calling for classrooms to be content neutral and distraction free.

The teacher, Sarah Inama, left the school district at the end of last school year, and filed a lawsuit against the district and the state, in which she called the state law “unconstitutionally vague and overbroad” and a violation of the First Amendment.

Babe Vote, a group dedicated to voter mobilization and civic engagement among young people, condemned Little and Critchfield for “using the taxpayer-funded halls” in the Capitol to “roll out a red carpet for a far-right political organization.”

“Under the guise of ‘free speech’ and ‘civic engagement,’ the state is actively partnering with an outside group to bring a specific, partisan political ideology into our classrooms,” the organization’s board of directors said in a statement. “This is a direct contradiction to the ‘keep politics out of schools’ mantra we hear so often from the same leaders.”

The group called out the state officials for “hypocrisy” and said Idaho’s schools have become hostile toward messages of inclusion. It pointed to the incident with Inama, and said Idaho leaders want to make sure only their viewpoints are allowed in Idaho schools.

The group encouraged students to create chapters of Babe Vote in their high schools.

“It is shameful that in Idaho, a message of basic human kindness and inclusivity is deemed ‘too political’ for a classroom, yet the Governor is hand-delivering a platform to a group whose own ‘resource library’ is filled with divisive and egregious messaging,” the Babe Vote statement said. “TPUSA’s materials frequently target educators and promote a narrow, exclusionary version of ‘patriotism’ that ignores the diverse reality of Idaho’s student body.”

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