Charlie Kirk’s education philosophy was founded upon the idea of not being on the left.
There is a lot of alignment with Kirk’s education philosophy and the Make America Great Again movement, but his approach predates Donald Trump’s rise.
There was a lot of foundation laying over time for Kirk’s conservative education philosophy.
Conservatives like Kirk have built an all-encompassing, alternative world for young conservatives to become involved in, where they have proximity to political and thought leaders, including Kirk.
Turning Point isn’t the same as the Republican Party, but it’s helping to push the party further to the right.
Charlie Kirk was a conservative activist who was killed in September. 10, 2025, at the beginning of a tour of a college campus where Kirk spoke to students about politics and education.
Kirk’s political activism was heavily focused on the ideals of education. Daniel Ruggles, a conservative youth activism expert, was interviewed by Amy Lieberman, The Conversation’s education editor, to learn more about Kirk’s educational philosophies and the connections he made with young people.
What aspect of Charlie Kirk’s beliefs regarding education is most crucial to comprehend?
The foundation of Charlie Kirk’s educational philosophy was the notion that he was not a leftist. The difficulty of articulating your beliefs and ideals in a constructive manner rather than merely as “anti” left is one of the issues with that strategy.
Long before Kirk’s time, conservatives were attempting to retake education from liberals, whom they believe value belonging and equity over the timeless principles of order and traditional values in society. Reclaiming education from liberals is the main goal of this philosophy in general.
Although there are many similarities between Kirk’s educational philosophy and the Make America Great Again movement, his strategy existed before Donald Trump became president. Its main goal is to restore what conservatives refer to as “traditional” and Western values. This entails going back in time to a more idealized period when society had gender roles for men and women and life was more peaceful and pure. This educational philosophy can be beneficial when it works well, teaching what society considers to be moral behavior, ethics, and tradition. However, it can also put tradition and privilege ahead of justice and equity.
This way of thinking also has to do with not feeling the need to apologize for who you are. The explanation of disadvantage is a major point of contention between liberals and conservatives. According to conservatives like Kirk, people shouldn’t have to apologize for who they are, and others shouldn’t be given preferential treatment because of who they are.
Not being “woke” is more important to this philosophy than improving the effectiveness of education. The general objective is usually to de-work the classroom. Eliminating grievance politics—the idea that someone has been marginalized due to their identity, race, gender, or sexual orientation—from the classroom is part of this.
How long has this educational philosophy been around?
As young adults realized they could now demand certain rights, progressive activism exploded in the 1960s amid the antiwar and New Left movements. Many young conservatives on campuses at the time were either content with the status quo or worried about some of the more radical viewpoints that the New Left was promoting.
The 1960s saw an increase in inclusivity at universities as well. Generally speaking, neither gender studies nor race and ethnicity programs were offered at American universities until the 1960s and 1970s. Some conservatives opposed the development of these programs, arguing that they should have a conservative studies department in addition to an African American studies department.
The conservative education movement waned after the 1960s. Though their merit-only educational philosophy seemed less applicable at a time when left-wing campus protests had drastically decreased, conservatives still wanted their voices heard on campus.
What were Charlie Kirk’s strategies for taking advantage of conservative sentiments around education?
In 2012, Kirk established Turning Point USA, a political nonprofit. Kirk initially opposed Trump, but he later befriended Donald Trump Jr. and grew close to the president in the end. Like Trump, Kirk believed that many of the issues facing American society stemmed from academia. By increasing the popularity of conservative concepts like free market economics and traditional gender roles, he hoped to make college campuses more welcoming to conservative students.
The groundwork for Kirk’s conservative educational philosophy was laid over a long period of time. Hamas’ October. attack in Israel on July 7, 2023, followed by the war in Gaza and demonstrations for Palestinian rights in the United States. S. . provided Kirk and other conservatives with an opportunity to paint progressives in schools as a serious threat.
What was Kirk’s tour intended to achieve?
Kirk and other members of the conservative youth movement want to be close to their followers. By using college campuses to entice young adults to become conservative voters and activists, conservatives are able to exert influence over society and government while also making the institution seem less progressive. Let’s imagine that progressive college students have posters of Che Guevara or Bernie Sanders in their dorm rooms. Kirk and other conservatives have created a broad, alternative world where young conservatives can get involved and interact with thought and political leaders like Kirk. Turning Point has helped make conservatism hip on campus by using eye-catching slogans, signs, and bumper stickers.
Kirk had just started his tour, but he had already scheduled stops at colleges in Colorado, Utah, Minnesota, Montana, and other states. It was crucial that Kirk was present in the room with the youth so they could converse and ask him questions. He was seen as approachable, which is not how most politicians would be perceived.
Conservatives have long employed this tactic. My own study demonstrates how college students would correspond with conservative figures such as William F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. These individuals would respond to Buckley’s work in the 1960s and 1970s. The left does not exhibit this level of closeness between leaders and young supporters. Building a community within the conservative movement is the aim. Later, a large number of those conservative college students held government jobs. Maintaining that direct connection between young people and conservative leaders was the goal of Kirk’s tour.
Conservatives have a pipeline, which means that, for example, you might be in high school and come across conservative ideas through Charlie Kirk’s YouTube videos. Attending Turning Point events in college allows you to network with conservative leaders. Even after graduation, you can use websites like ConservativeJobs.com to find employment with a conservative organization. The pipeline’s objective is to consistently provide young conservatives with an additional avenue for political engagement. Even though not everyone uses this pipeline, it aids in the development of new talent for the conservative movement. I believe that one of Kirk’s many goals was to use Turning Point to develop a pool of young talent.
What distinguishes Turning Point from MAGA and the Republican Party?
Although it isn’t the same as the Republican Party, Turning Point is assisting in the party’s further rightward movement. In some respects, Turning Point has alienated other conservative movement members. Turning Point was charged by the conservative youth organization Young America’s Foundation in 2018 with monopolizing the conservative youth movement and displacing other organizations. Since funds and publicity enable Turning Point to silence other conservative voices, the organization’s overall revenue has increased significantly over the past few years, reaching US$85 million in 2024.
Trump and Kirk had a lot of policy points in common. Kirk defended Trump and defined conservatism according to his own standards in Turning Point. As the most significant cultural issue on the right since the 1960s, education is the focus of the majority of Turning Point’s work.
