How to make more Charlie Kirks: Inside TPUSA's gap-year alternative to the 'college scam'

For decades, aspiring young Americans have followed a predictable formula: high school, college, debt. But at the Turning Point USA prep year program, 18-year-old students are encouraged to pause, learn how to think, and discover their true purpose before committing to that considerable investment.

Charlie Kirk speaks at CPAC in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Dr. David Arnott, dean of the program, reflects on why the biggest problem in America isn't merely economics: it's character and wisdom. The mission is bold: use a year of classical, liberal arts education to mold the next generation of America's conservative leaders.

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Dr. Arnott sat down with Fox News at FreedomFest in Las Vegas to discuss how TPUSA's prep year is fulfilling Charlie Kirk's educational vision for America's youth:

"It is an ‘education about economics’ problem. I started my lecture here yesterday at FreedomFest asking the question, ‘why do we keep falling for socialism?’ And I tried to answer that question. And that's what I've been studying over the last 12 years as a Christian economist. 

"How do we distribute goods in a fallen world? And so I was asked by the people at Turning Point USA to be their dean of the prep year program in Fort Worth. Charlie Kirk's first book in 2022 was called ‘The College Scam.’ In 2026, he implemented his idea for education. 

"On September 2nd, the first class met in Fort Worth. He was assassinated eight days later on September 10th. What we're trying to do at prep year is to implement Charlie Kirk's idea for education."

Dr. David Arnott speaks at a Turning Point Education event.

Yet, Dr. Arnott emphasizes that the purpose of prep year is not to dissuade young people from pursuing a college education, but to ensure that they are prepared to do so if they make that choice.

"We're having this interview at FreedomFest. So I think people should have the freedom…they should have the freedom to go to college. They should have the freedom go into the trades. The problem is the government puts their thumb on the scale by supporting the price of college and, of course, forgiving the debt, which they shouldn't do anyway. If the government would just leave it alone, we'd be happy."

TPUSA's prep year program recently graduated its first class.

"We just dismissed our first class of 34, our inaugural class of prep year. It started September 2, 2025, and ended May 22, 2026. 34 students, about a third will be in college this fall. About a third will go into the trades. I just filled out an application the other day for one of the students to get a Mike Rowe Scholarship. And about a third will go on to other things that we don't know yet. 

"We are trying to implement what Charlie Kirk wanted. Which is the economic freedom to do with your life as you wish."

The launch of the program was immediately prior to Kirk's tragic assassination on the campus of Utah State University.

Students and staff pose for a group photo at a Turning Point Education event.

"He started [the program] on September 2nd, just eight days before he was assassinated, and so Charlie Kirk's ideas are really old ideas…they're not new, and so they encompass these things: Christian, liberal arts, classical and a Socratic teaching method. So that's what we do. We'll take in 35 to 50, maybe as many as 80 students in Elgin, Illinois and Fort Worth this fall. They'll be with us for nine months and we'll teach them those four ways of teaching.

"We'll teach them the disciplines of the Great Book, which is the Bible of course, great books by people like Dante and Virgil and Homer. We'll teach also how to get along in life, meaning how do you prepare yourself for life. And by the way…that's why we call it prep year. We're actually in the gap year industry. We take in 18-year-olds who have just graduated from high school. But we call it prep year because we are preparing them for life, more than just that education. 

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"And the real secret sauce that I can't explain to you because it's so hard to explain is the effect of being with 35 to 50 other committed Christian conservative 18-year-olds who are highly intelligent. The way in which they learn from each other and gain from each other is just spectacular."

As AI radically transforms education, learning, and the very face of knowledge itself, Arnott emphasizes that the program seeks to instill wisdom, not merely mastery of academic subjects:

"AI can't teach character, and that's what we teach at prep year and that is what Charlie Kirk wanted us to teach. He realized that there would be something coming along like AI that would answer all the technical questions of life, but it won't answer the important questions of life. 

Dr. David Arnott and a Turning Point Education representative stand at a podium during an event.

"Wisdom is what we want these students to have. It's hard to teach wisdom, but that's what we're attempting to do. But as you said, David, that's why the traditional colleges have failed. They can teach people facts. They can't teach them wisdom. 

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"If I had one sentence, a mission statement for prep year, it is to make more Charlie Kirks. And so my invitation to 18-year-olds just graduating from high school, you want to be more like Charlie Kirk? Come join us."

David Unsworth reports on Latin America. You can follow David Unsworth on Twitter @LatinAmerUpdate