Republicans are taking action after a new study revealed the extent of China’s “indoctrination” of US K-12 schools, to the tune of more than $17 million dollars.
The Parents Defending Education report states that the close collaboration between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and American schools to establish Confucius Classrooms historically involved 143 school districts in 34 states and Washington, DC.
In addition, there are at least seven contracts in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington.
The Little Red Classrooms report reveals that $17 million was funneled from CCP-linked financial institutions to US K-12 schools through Confucius Institutes and other cultural and language programs.
At least seven contracts are still pending in Texas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington
It also states that the CCP has “ties to school districts near 20 US military bases” and that three of the country’s top science and technology high schools have been infiltrated.
“While the United States is not officially part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese state media has touted the work of Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms to increase the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence,” the report continues.
China has facilitated these relationships through grants and sister school partnerships dating back to 2009. Programming and funding varied among school districts, the report adds.
PDE chair Nicki Neily said in a statement that the “alarming evidence” uncovered by the investigation “should concern parents, educators and policymakers alike.”
The report has been given to state and federal lawmakers in the hope that it will spur action.
Rep. Jim Banks is demanding that the Department of Education take action with “urgency” to end these “disturbing” partnerships, he says in a letter to Sec. Miguel Cardona obtained by DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
“The Chinese Communist Party is not a reliable partner. Accepting funding and influence from our greatest adversary poses a threat to American children and national security,” Banks told DailyMail.com.
He wrote in the letter that the US ‘should’take every measure” to bolster its defenses against China, including by “blocking their ability to propagate in U.S. K-12 schools.”
The congressman — who sits on the newly created House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party — is calling for immediate action from the Biden administration.
He also noted that the State Department under former President Donald Trump designated the Confucius Institutes as a “foreign mission,” which helped shut down some of these “dangerous programs.”
Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., told DailyMail.com that the report is “alarming” because “we really don’t understand the full extent of Communist China’s interference in our education system.”
“The CCP not only tries to promote their propaganda through education programs, but also uses Chinese shell companies to buy up American private schools across the country.”
He urges state governments, along with federal aid, to begin cracking down on attacking our children.
Waltz has also raised the alarm in Chinese-owned schools in the US with Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) programs.
He has asked the Pentagon to investigate those schools because he considers them a serious threat to national security.
Senator Roger Marshall told DailyMail.com that the Parents Defending Education report should “alarm” every American parent, especially as the CCP targets schools that are too close to military bases.
The Kansas senator introduced a new bill Tuesday that would prohibit federal agencies from funding research in China or “any entity” owned by China.
“From buying our farmland to setting up CCP police stations here on American soil, stealing our intellectual property, spying on our military bases, and now buying their way into our kids’ K-12 schools, it is time for this government to wake up and realize what we are dealing with,” he told DailyMail.com.
Under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2021, the Pentagon is prohibited from providing funds to “institution(s) of higher education hosting a Confucius Institute” after October 1, 2023.
As a result, since the 2021 NDAA passage, more than 100 US universities have closed their Confucius Institutes.
As of March 2023, the National Association of Scholars lists a total of 13 Confucius Institutes in the US – with more than 108 closing or about to close.
Chinese Communist Party House Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher has been working in recent weeks to close down Alfred University at New York’s Confucius Institute.
The university received a five-year, $13.5 million taxpayer-funded research grant for the Pentagon in 2022 to conduct research on hypersonic weapons.
Gallagher objected to national security concerns he had about millions in Pentagon funds going to a CCP-affiliated university.
In a June 13 letter obtained by DailyMail.com, university attorney Robert Fisher responded to Gallagher by saying that Alfred University has decided to close the Confucius Institute “as of June 30, 2023.”
Gallagher told DailyMail.com of the PDE report that the CCP should not be allowed to “influence the American education system,” adding “America’s children deserve better.”
There are four other universities that host a Confucius Institute and have received DOD grants: University of Toledo, University of Utah, St. Cloud State University, and Wesleyan College.
Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, R-Texas, told DailyMail.com that it is “ridiculous” that there are no measures “that protect our children from CCP influence.”
“Learning languages and cultures critical to national security, such as Chinese, is essential, but it should not be accompanied by communist propaganda and influence,” he added.
In 2019, the FBI found that “adversaries of foreign states attempt to illegally or unlawfully acquire U.S. academic research and information to further their scientific, economic, and military development goals.”
FBI Director Chris Wray outlined the threat in a 2020 speech, saying China pays scientists at American universities to “secretly bring our knowledge and innovation back to China — including valuable, federally funded research.”