Two months apart, two very different messages from state leaders landed in Texas public school districts.
The message from state political leaders could not be clearer: Local control of public schools is sacred only until state leaders disagree with your politics.
Under Texas law, locally elected boards of trustees and superintendents — not state bureaucrats — have the “exclusive power and duty to govern” the district and are entrusted with “managing the day-to-day operations of the district,” including approving and overseeing student clubs. When students want to establish a new club, they follow local district policy: complete paperwork, find a faculty sponsor and let their locally elected board decide.
This process puts students in the driver’s seat and provides genuine civic learning and leadership experiences. Students have long followed this process to organize around causes they believe in and sought to create spaces to discuss views, ideas and experiences. If students want to request a Club America chapter, they are already free to do so through this established process.
Texas has a long tradition of state-supported nonpartisan student organizations such as Future Farmers of America (FFA) and DECA clubs, which prepare future business leaders — groups tied to curriculum and initiated locally. Turning Point USA’s own materials provide some evidence about how state leaders’ actions are uniquely different: Club America is described as mobilizing “anti-woke warriors” with resources designed to teach students that “taxes are shady” and “big gov scares.”
Ironically, if state leaders compel or coerce local districts to establish a Club America chapter, that is big government in action.
What is happening in Oklahoma and Florida should serve as a warning to Texans. Oklahoma’s former state superintendent threatened schools’ accreditation if they refused to establish Club America chapters. Florida officials similarly threatened legal action against high schools that block Turning Point efforts. These actions suggest that requiring a Club America in every high school may not be about supporting student civic engagement.
If Texas district leaders are compelled or coerced to establish Club America chapters, superintendents and boards will no longer be making genuine local decisions — they will be managing pressure from public officials who control their funding, accreditation and autonomy. The question for local leaders will shift from “Does this club serve our students?” to “Even if no student in our district has asked for this club, what happens if we say no?”
Texas has a proud tradition of trusting local communities to make decisions about their schools — a tradition that works only when state leaders actually respect it. Local control is not a slogan to invoke when it’s convenient and abandon when it’s not. If state leaders can ban identity-based student clubs they disagree with and mandate political clubs they support, local control means nothing. Let local boards decide which clubs best serve their communities.
Rachel S. White is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas.