What is Club America? Inside the student club facing backlash in this CA city
Students and community members flooded a Western Placer Unified School District board meeting on Tuesday after a public official’s comments to a new student club ignited controversy. Some defended the club as a space to foster dialogue on difficult issues, others criticized the club and the official who made the remarks.
Lincoln Mayor Holly Andreatta’s comments about race and gender at the inaugural meeting of Twelve Bridges High School’s chapter of Club America last week led students to call for the club to be disbanded. Andreatta has since issued statements and videos clarifying and amending her statements.
Club America is the high school program of Turning Point USA, the organization conservative activist Charlie Kirk founded that advocates for conservative causes and encourages students to form local chapters. There are about 800 Turning Point USA chapters on college campuses and more than 1,200 campus and community-based Club America chapters in the country.
There are nearly 240 Club America chapters at public and private high schools in California, including 15 in the Sacramento region, according to the organization’s website, which also maps chapters throughout the state and nation. In the Central Valley, there are two dozen chapters spanning from Modesto to Fresno, including four in and around Merced. San Luis Obispo County has chapters at three high schools. Supporters say Club America promotes conservative values and banning the club would violate free speech rights. Opponents say Club America promotes hate, citing the views held by program’s founder Charlie Kirk. In a statement released shortly after the club’s first meeting last week, Western Placer Unified officials said allowing the club does not mean the school agrees with its views.
While starting Club America chapters has sparked controversies in high schools from Oregon to Florida, the program also has the support of many state and federal officials.
After Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was murdered while speaking at Utah Valley University in September, the organization saw a dramatic spike in interest, Andrew Kolvet, a Turning Point spokesperson, told CNN. Kirk’s killing led to more than 50,000 inquiries about starting high school and college chapters, Kolvet said. It also spurred governmental efforts to bring the conservative organization onto public school campuses around the country.
In the wake of Kirk’s murder, former Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced that “every high school will have a TPUSA Club America chapter” in a since-deleted press release.
“There has been no moment in time during the course of this century when there was such an urgency and a need for an organization like TPUSA and Club America,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press conference last week.
In September, the U.S. Department of Education announced that civics education will be a new department priority when allocating discretionary grant funding, according to a press release. The announcement coincided with the anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Constitution and did not mention Kirk or Turning Point USA.
On the same day, the department also announced plans to design and promote curricula aimed at “renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation,” according to a Dept. of Education press release.
That effort, called the “America 250 Civics Education Coalition,” is a collaboration between the department and more than 40 other conservative organizations, including PragerU, Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA. Turning Point Education’s chief education officer, Dr. Hutz H. Hertzberg, says the initiative is in line with Turning Point USA’s mission to “advance God-centered, virtuous education for students flourishing across our nation,” according to the press release.
This story was originally published December 17, 2025 at 11:40 AM with the headline "What is Club America? Inside the student club facing backlash in this CA city."
