The U.S. Department of Education has paid tribute to our friend Charlie Kirk, an American hero who fought for educational freedom but never graduated from college. Here’s why this historic and cultural moment deserves our full attention.
This article is a lightly edited transcript of the “Here’s the Point” podcast by Ryan Helfenbein, executive director of the Standing for Freedom Center.
Last Saturday, the U.S. Department of Education unveiled a series of commemorative banners on its Washington, D.C., building in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. The banners celebrate what the department called “visionary leaders whose contributions have shaped the future of education for generations.”
Alongside Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr., Anne Sullivan, Booker T. Washington, and Catharine Beecher, the face now displayed on that federal building belongs to Charlie Kirk — founder of Turning Point USA — who was assassinated at Utah Valley University on September 10, 2025, at 31 years of age.
Make no mistake: This is not a minor news item. This is a cultural and historical moment that deserves our full attention given what we know about our friend Charlie Kirk and his care and concern over the modern American university.
Charlie Kirk’s legacy now clearly belongs in the story of American education.
The Department of Education’s biography of Kirk says it plainly: He was “dedicated to serving God, his family, and his country — in that order.”
Charlie was a political advocate and activist, but more than that, his biography is unmistakably marked by his patriotism, his love for his family, and most especially, for his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Kirk built Turning Point USA from a small campus gathering into one of the most active youth political movements and organizations in American history, far greater than what William F. Buckley was able to achieve with Young America’s Foundation more than a half-century ago.
Charlie walked onto the most hostile, ideological territories in this country — college campuses — and planted flags for free speech, limited government, and biblical truth. He won over the students and started tens of thousands of chapter clubs all over the nation.
He was fearless and did not flinch at jeering crowds. He did not run away from debate when the threats came. He believed that young Americans deserved the truth — and he gave it to them without apology.
Charlie believed in reclaiming the narrative over American education.
For decades, the left understood something too many conservatives ignored: Whoever controls education controls the future. They systematically dismantled the civic foundations of this country from within the classroom — replacing history with ideology, truth with relativism, and the fear of God with the worship and the praise of the State.
Charlie saw it very clearly and devoted his life to confronting the challenge in education. He understood that the battle for America’s soul was being fought on America’s college campuses, in student unions, and in dormitories — and that Christians and conservatives were largely absent from the fight.
Charlie would often say to his donors and supporters: “I visit college campuses and universities, so you don’t have to.”
The banner in the Department of Education’s headquarters now says this: “Empowering our states to tell the stories of our heroes in American education” and “Recharting the course toward a brighter future for American education.”
The era of leftist control over our national institutions must come to an end. No clearly is the threat more visible and real than in modern education
This movement of freedom did not die Charlie Kirk. It has multiplied and spread.
The great Church father Tertullian wrote in the second century that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” History has confirmed it repeatedly: The death of a faithful servant does not extinguish a God-breathed movement. So often, it fans the flame.
The Department of Education’s biography of Kirk notes what happened in the months following his assassination: “Student-led efforts to form new chapters and host civic gatherings reflected the self-sustaining, community-based model he championed.” The students he equipped did not scatter. They organized and grew.
That is the mark of a movement built on something deeper than the cult of personality. Charlie Kirk was merely a messenger pointing to something far greater than himself. First, Jesus Christ is the author and giver of salvation, and also to our great nation, whose blood-bought freedom is worth celebrating, championing, and defending.
As we approach America’s 250th birthday on July 4, 2026, it is right and good to remember those who paid the highest price for what they believed. Our friend Charlie Kirk gave his life defending the next generation’s right to think freely and to know firstly the God who made them.
So let us resolve to do the same.
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