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“The danger of Confucius Classrooms in American K-12 schools cannot be overstated. They threaten our national security, compromise our geopolitical interests, and erode our academic freedom.”
–REP. AARON BEAN
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives heard testimony regarding an investigative report that found that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is influencing and propagandizing children in K-12 schools across America through “Confucius Classrooms,” which shares teachers and curriculum between U.S. classrooms and China.
The Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Subcommittee conducted the hearing this past week after an investigation by the watchdog group Parents Defending Education (PDE) found that 143 public schools had, at some point, included programming that teaches Chinese language and culture. Confucius Classrooms, as they’re known, typically spawned from Confucius Institutes, which are CCP-backed programs on American college campuses.
The U.S. State Department has designated Confucius Institutes as “foreign missions” by the CCP and disclosed that the programs are funded under guidance by the country’s “overseas propaganda and influence operation.”
Former CCP Senior Chairman Li Changchun has even admitted that Confucius Institutes were “an important part of China’s overseas propaganda set-up.” After U.S. lawmakers eliminated funding for colleges that host the programs, their numbers dwindled, with 108 having either been closed or in the process of being closed. As of March 2023, just 13 were still operating in the U.S..
However, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) said this summer that “many once-defunct Confucius Institutes had reopened under new names” in at least 28 schools, while another 58 “have maintained close relationships with their former Confucius Institute partner.”
PDE argues that while Confucius Institutes may be diminishing, their efforts have impacted U.S. public schools and claims that at least seven school districts have ongoing Confucius Classrooms curriculum and programming. These are as follows:
The investigation also claims that three of the nation’s top science and technology high schools have ties to Chinese government programs.
One of the witnesses who testified was Ryan Walters, superintendent of public instruction for the Oklahoma State Department of Education. He explained that after learning Tulsa Public Schools was listed in the report, his staff conducted its own investigation into the connection and “discovered a disturbing connection between the CCP and that school district,” adding that through a series of non-profits, the district “maintains an active connection with the CCP through a program called Confucius Classrooms, even after the federal government cracked down on similar programs in 2020.”
Walter asked Congress for help, saying,
“With whatever common sense remains, I urge that Congress pass a law to ban schools from accepting money from hostile foreign governments and prohibit data sharing agreements with hostile foreign governments. At the state level, state education agencies should require districts to report foreign money they accept and non-profit money they accept.”
Tulsa Public Schools denies the allegations, saying that one teacher has participated in professional development with an organization in Texas that partners with Confucius Classroom. “The teacher’s salary and adopted instructional resources are fully paid for by Tulsa Public Schools. Contrary to accusations, the district takes no funds from the Chinese government,” TPS argued in a statement.
The subcommittee members were especially alarmed with the report’s finding that 20 of the schools involved in the Confucius Classroom programs were located near U.S. military bases. Nicole Neilly, president of PDE, told the members that teachers involved in the CCP’s teacher exchange program are chosen by the CCP and are “given access to district servers and student information.”
Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., chairman of the subcommittee, stated,
“These ties raise serious concerns about the safety and security of military children and secrets. The CCP’s presence near our bases can be seen as a direct attempt to target and influence these vulnerable populations, potentially compromising our national security in the process.”
The PDE report also found that Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia, received $1 million in aid from Chinese government entities, including military schools that are supervised by the Chinese defense industry.
Members of the subcommittee expressed concern at allowing the CCP to have any sway over U.S. public schools, including the requirement that teachers censor certain topics that are verboten to the Chinese government.
Bean stated that “when you pull back the curtain on these ‘cultural exchange centers,’ you find a CCP-backed agenda that undermines the principles upon which our education system is built.”
He added,
“Every dollar that flows into American classrooms from the CCP comes with strings attached, and the most important string is the requirement that instructors censor themselves to appease Beijing. It would be remarkable to even hear four words in a Confucius Classroom: Tibet, Taiwan, Tiananmen Square,” This … censorship stifles academic freedom, which is the cornerstone of our educational system.”
NAS has cautioned that Confucius Classrooms don’t limit themselves to teaching Chinese language and culture but also subjects “like history or economics that the Chinese government may have a special interest in.”
Is the U.S. education system so hard up for teaching resources that we now have to take money and curriculum from a hostile foreign adversary that is one of the most cruel, manipulative, and censorial in history?
The CCP has murdered and tortured millions of people in the name of advancing communism, and its human rights abuses did not end during the 20th century. Even now, the CCP is conducting a genocide of ethnic minorities; imprisoning protestors and political opponents in Hong Kong and Tibet; conducting invasive spy operations on its own citizens; and persecuting religious groups, including Christians.
Teachers in China’s own school system would be jailed or worse if they ever mentioned the horrors of the Tiananmen Square Massacre, where thousands of students protesting for freedom were shot or run over by tanks at the behest of party leaders; criticized the cruelty of the One-Child Policy that gave the state the right to order forced abortions and take away newborn babies from their parents; or honestly discussed the disastrous failures of CCP economic and social programs, like the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
If you ask the CCP, however, its actions and policies have brought nothing but wealth and happiness to the Chinese people, even claiming that teaching various faith groups to abandon their religion and praise the state will bring them prosperity. Like any totalitarian state, the CCP whitewashes its history and actions, but its censorship strategy extends much farther than that. Besides its stranglehold on the Internet and other communications in China, the CCP has even rewritten the Bible in order to bring Christianity in line with party ideology and to try to keep the Chinese people from ever knowing the true liberty and hope that Jesus Christ brings to those who believe in Him.
It’s ironic that American schools are allowing the CCP to teach American schoolchildren about how wonderful and prosperous life in China is under communism even as they advance an alternative “woke” history of America that teaches those same schoolchildren that their own country is racist and irredeemably oppressive.
Hopefully, Congress will act to cut off all funding that enables the teaching of any foreign propaganda in U.S. schools and universities, but it would be nice if they could also incentivize the U.S. education system to implement curriculum that advances truth, critical thinking, freedom, and love for America.
Collegiate education is saturated in woke narratives and progressive agendas. Sadly, this secularistic intrusion is happening in America’s grade schools as well. But this doesn’t have to happen to your children! Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.
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