Spurred by a July 2023 report by Parents Defending Education, “Little Red Classrooms: China’s Infiltration of American K-12 Schools,” several U.S. Senators have signed a letter dated August 29, 2023 urging the secretary of the U.S. Department of Education to look into the influence of the CCP on primary and secondary education:
For nearly two decades, the CCP has engaged in efforts to exert influence in American schools and our education system. Through grants, sister school partnerships, “Confucius Institutes,” and other state-sponsored programming, the CCP has worked to gain access to America’s education system to advance its own agenda…. In 2020, the U.S. Department of State designated Confucius Institutes as a “foreign mission” of the Chinese government and Congress took steps to restrict U.S. Department of Defense funding from universities that host such institutes.
It is clear that the CCP is using the same playbook to extend information operations into our K-12 classrooms. However, measures to restrict “Confucius Classrooms” or prevent the expansion of other forms of propaganda at the primary and secondary level have yet to be taken.
The CCP’s involvement in the K-12 education system further demonstrates how far the Chinese government is willing go to expand its influence and promote its authoritarian agenda. We cannot sit idle and allow this expansion of CCP propaganda.
Parents Defending Education learned that Confucius Classrooms or other CCP-backed programs are currently in place in at least seven school districts in Kentucky, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Washington State; that three of the country’s top science and technology high schools are affiliated with Chinese universities or have China-backed programs; and that the CCP “has had ties to school districts near 20 U.S. military bases.” Its report includes appendices with abundant documentation of funding from and ties to entities like Hanban and the North Carolina Center for International Understanding, which are part of or answer to the Chinese government.
Presumably, the concerned Senators will not sit idle “and allow this expansion of CCP propaganda” if the Department of Education sits idle. But parents and others can also take action locally. Parents Defending Education concludes that although making it possible for students to learn Chinese language and culture is important, “American schools should not give the Chinese Communist Party unfettered access to our students. If you believe your school district has created a Confucius Classroom, email us with documents at info@defendinged.org and we will add it to the list.”
Vigilance cannot be relaxed when such programs are ostensibly shut down. Often they are simply rebranded. In recent years, many of the same universities that ended their Confucius programs after the State Department publicized their true nature then replaced the programs with similar programs having the same affiliations.
