A conservative education reform organization says it’s gathered “over a hundred” reports of educators celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death.
“I think that we have kind of just called it accountability,” 1776 Project PAC executive director Stefano Forte told Fox News Digital.
“We decided to do this because we want to make sure that the next generation of students is not being taught by radicals in the classroom. And we have gotten a ton of submissions. We are sifting through all of them. There are still submissions coming in,” Forte said.
Since Kirk’s murder on Sept. 10, there have been several instances of educators and administrators celebrating or making insensitive comments about his death, prompting backlash.
The 1776 Project PAC was launched in 2021 by Ryan Girdusky during the coronavirus pandemic to combat progressive-led efforts in the education system. Its mission is to reform school boards across the country by supporting conservative candidates.
“We are one of the only PACs, federal PACs in the country that does this. This is a very niche PAC. We do school board races. We’ve done other races in the past, but our bread and butter is the school board races. And the reason why we’re pouring so much money into school board races is because, traditionally, the establishment of the Republican Party has not really made this a priority for themselves. They haven’t really gone after school boards,” Forte said.
Forte explained further that the 1776 Project PAC noticed the learning loss incurred from COVID-induced school lockdowns, declining grades and eroded standards in the classroom.
Since April, the PAC has backed more than 350 school board races and won more than 200 school board seats across the country.
Forte added that the effort to oust teachers celebrating the death of Kirk is to expose the “radical element” of the public school system. The PAC launched a form to allow anyone to report instances of educators and administrators celebrating the death of Kirk, who was assassinated last month. The PAC wants to hold those accountable for celebrating the conservative leader’s death.
“So what this accountability project does for us is it gives parents a well-rounded view of the people that are teaching their kids. So it is absolutely pivotal. We do not want to dampen anybody’s free speech. We want to accelerate their free speech, we want to give them an even bigger platform, so people can know what they truly believe,” Forte said.
“We’ve gotten thousands of them. I believe that about a hundred of them will be valid by the time we’re done sifting through everything,” he added.
Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University pushed TPUSA to its greatest prominence yet.
Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was last month named CEO and chair of the board of TPUSA, which operates 900 college chapters and about 1,200 high school chapters.
In contrast to some of the ugliness seen in reaction to her husband’s death, Erika Kirk was lauded around the nation for forgiving her husband’s suspected killer at his memorial service.
“If you are putting your face, your name, you are saying that you believe that the death of Charlie Kirk is something to celebrate about. All we are doing as an organization is saying, ‘Great, we amplify your voice. We’ve given you a megaphone,’” Forte said.
He continued, “Now everybody knows about it. Your co-workers know about it, your students know about it, the administrators know about it. The school board knows about it.’ That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Turning Point USA has not yet responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
