The partnership between the Tennessee state government and Turning Point USA (TPUSA), which has resulted in the establishment of TPUSA-affiliated clubs across public high schools and colleges in Tennessee, raises serious constitutional, educational, and moral concerns. We respectfully call on the State of Tennessee to immediately re-evaluate and terminate this partnership to protect the well-being, rights, and educational integrity of Tennessee’s students.

Turning Point USA is not a nonpartisan civic organization. It is a national political advocacy group with a clearly defined ideological agenda. TPUSA’s rhetoric and programming consistently advance extreme partisan positions and promote a worldview rooted in Christian nationalism, an ideology that seeks to merge a narrow interpretation of Christianity with government authority. This is fundamentally incompatible with the constitutional requirement that public institutions remain neutral toward religion under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

TPUSA’s public statements, events, and affiliated speakers have repeatedly included rhetoric that marginalizes people of color, immigrants, LGBTQ+ individuals, and followers of non-Christian religions. Such messaging reinforces systems of racism, religious discrimination, and hostility toward sexual orientation and gender identity. When this rhetoric is brought into publicly funded educational institutions through a state-supported partnership, it signals government endorsement of exclusionary and discriminatory beliefs that is both unethical and unconstitutional.

Tennessee is already facing a severe youth mental health crisis. Rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among Tennessee youth, especially LGBTQ+ youth and students from marginalized communities, remain alarmingly high. Introducing or amplifying ideological environments that stigmatize students’ identities, families, or beliefs can worsen feelings of isolation, fear, and worthlessness. The state should not be partnering with organizations whose messaging risks contributing to psychological harm, bullying, or increased suicide risk among vulnerable students.

Public schools and universities exist to foster critical thinking, academic integrity, and respectful engagement with diverse ideas, not to serve as pipelines for any political organization, especially one with a record of misinformation, inflammatory rhetoric, and efforts to reverse long-standing societal norms around equality. TPUSA’s vision of society centers power around a single identity at the expense of pluralism, equity, and democratic values. This runs counter to the inclusive mission of public education and the constitutional promise of equal protection under the law.

Educational institutions must be safe spaces for all students, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or political belief. A state partnership that elevates one extreme ideological movement undermines trust in our schools, silences diverse perspectives, and erodes the neutrality that public education is legally and ethically required to maintain.

We urge the Governor of Tennessee and state leaders to immediately reconsider and overturn this partnership. Tennessee’s government must recommit to upholding the Constitution, protecting students’ mental health, and ensuring that public education remains inclusive, fact-based, and free from partisan and religious coercion.

By signing this petition, we stand for the separation of church and state, for the dignity and safety of Tennessee’s youth, and for an educational system that reflects the full diversity of our state, not just the agenda of a single, extreme political organization.