Ranking Member Cassidy, Scott, Colleagues Demand Investigation into Chinese Communist Party Influence in American K-12 Schools
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Tim Scott (R-SC), Jim Risch (R-ID), and 15 Republican colleagues raised concerns to Department of Education (ED) Secretary Miguel Cardona following new reports showing millions of dollars from Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked entities have flowed into America’s K-12 classrooms. The reports detail how for nearly two decades, the CCP has threatened our national security by using tools such as grants, sister school partnerships, “Confucius Classrooms,” and other state-sponsored programming to compromise the integrity of America’s students and the K-12 educational system.
The senators urged the Biden administration to conduct a nationwide investigation to determine the extent of funding from hostile foreign adversaries in elementary and secondary schools.
“Programs vetted and managed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have infiltrated 34 states nationwide, impacting more than 170,000 students across 143 school districts,” wrote the senators. “We urge you to conduct a thorough, nationwide audit to determine how much funding from hostile foreign governments has flowed to America’s K-12 schools. We also urge you to analyze the extent to which other hostile foreign governments, in addition to the PRC, may have already gained access to our K-12 schools.”
Cassidy, Scott, and Risch are joined by U.S. Senators John Barrasso (R-WY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Rick Scott (R-FL), John Thune (R-SD), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and J.D. Vance (R-OH).
Read the full letter here or below.
Dear Secretary Cardona:
We write to express deep concerns regarding an alarming new report describing how millions of dollars of funding from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have flowed into America’s K-12 classrooms.[1] The report found that programs vetted and managed by the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have infiltrated 34 states nationwide, impacting more than 170,000 students across 143 school districts. We urge you to conduct a thorough, nationwide audit to determine how much funding from hostile foreign governments has flowed to America’s K-12 schools. We also urge you to analyze the extent to which other hostile foreign governments, in addition to the PRC, may have already gained access to our K-12 schools.
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 a 2016 article, Chinese state-run media reported that the CCP considers Confucius Institutes “important channels” to promote and advance the Belt and Road Initiative.[2] 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.[3]
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. As the 2022 National Defense Strategy states, “[the] most comprehensive and serious challenge to U.S. national security is the PRC’s coercive and increasingly aggressive endeavor to refashion…the international system to suit its interests and authoritarian preferences.” While we firmly believe that American students should be exposed to a variety of languages and cultures, that instruction should not be a vehicle to advance the interests of a totalitarian power.
The CCP is the greatest threat to America’s security today. 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 deserve transparency and policymakers must know the extent of the problem so we can work on solutions to protect both our students and our national security.
Accordingly, we urge you to conduct a thorough, nationwide audit to determine how much funding from hostile foreign governments has flowed into America’s K-12 schools. We urge you to analyze the extent to which other hostile foreign governments, in addition to the PRC, may have already gained access to our K-12 schools. Please respond no later than September 8th, 2023 with respect to your commitment to perform that audit, as well as its scope of review. We look forward to working with you to prevent our students and their families from falling victim to authoritarian propaganda and urge you to take bold steps to curb the CCP’s malign influence in our education system.
