GOP lawmakers put three bills on the House floor on Wednesday to root out foreign funding and protect parental rights.
House Republicans launched a legislative push on Wednesday to root out the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in American K-12 education.
GOP lawmakers put three bills on the House floor that would together: establish reporting requirements for foreign funding, strengthen parents’ rights to request information regarding foreign funding in schools, and prohibit schools that receive Chinese funding from also receiving federal funding.
“China wants to influence what American students learn in classrooms from kindergarten through college. These commonsense bills will protect them from Chinese propaganda and shine a light on how China tries to influence our education system,” Representative John Moolenaar, Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, told National Review.
In addition to the CCP’s well-known push to influence American higher education through Confucius Institutes and student exchange programs, Beijing has in recent years expanded its efforts to establish a foothold in American K-12 education
National Review‘s Haley Strack reported extensively on the CCP’s attempt to clone Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School, with help from school administrators. A part of this deal between Chinese entities and TJHS included monetary donations, which amounted to almost $4 million.
Another influence operation, aimed at high schools in Iowa, involved CCP-sponsored trips for local church choirs to travel to China to perform for party officials, National Review previously reported. While on the trips, students were filmed reciting pro-CCP scripts and praising Xi Jin Ping.
If passed, H.R. 1005, sponsored by Representative David Joyce (R., Ohio), “prohibits public elementary and secondary schools, as a condition of receiving federal elementary and secondary education funds, from accepting funds from or entering into a contract with the Chinese government.” The bill also requires that schools disclose any foreign funding or contracts with the Department of Education. This law, for example, speaks directly to the controversy at TJHS.
Through collaboration with the CCP, TJHS helped the Chinese open dozens of schools — based on TJHS blueprints, syllabi, and curricula — in China. Chinese donations to the American school were traded for a playbook on how to recreate TJHS abroad.
H.R. 1049, sponsored by Representative Aaron Bean (R., Fla.), codifies parental rights, requiring local education agencies to notify parents of their right to “request and receive information regarding foreign influence,” the bill summary reads.
A third bill, H.R. 1069, sponsored by Representative Kevin Hern (R., Okla.), prohibits any school that collaborates with the Chinese government, including those that host Confucius Classrooms — K-12 programs that teach Chinese language and culture — from receiving federal funding.
“The CCP’s malign influence in our educational institutions is a serious and growing threat,” Hern said in a press release. “Today’s students are our future leaders, and we must ensure their learning environments are free from anti-American, foreign influence.”
Moolenaar noted in his remarks on the House floor that the Chinese government wants to influence every American, even school-age children. Notably, Moolenaar said his office uncovered a program in a Montgomery County school that sent 31 students to China, bankrolled by the Chinese government.
“The CCP would love to stop Americans from learning about its horrific Cultural Revolution, its slaughter of innocent students at Tiananmen Square, its genocide of Uyghurs, and its authoritarian plans for the future,” Moolenaar said. “These bills will empower parents and prohibit China’s influence in our classrooms so American students can learn the truth about the CCP.”