A new report has revealed that at least 143 K-12 schools in the U.S. currently have or have had past ties to a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) program known as “Confucius Classrooms.” Experts say the CCP effort to infiltrate schools with communist propaganda is part of a concerted effort to “subvert” the U.S. from the inside in order to weaken it, possibly paving the way for a future direct military confrontation.
While Confucius Institutes (CIs) have long been associated with colleges and universities in the U.S., Confucius Classrooms are aimed at K-12 schools and are touted as “centers that teach Chinese language and culture.” But as Parents Defending Education has uncovered in its new report, not only do Confucius Classroom programs create a partnership between a school and a Chinese government entity, they are also affiliated with “three of the nation’s top science and technology high schools” as well as “school districts near 20 U.S. military bases.”
From 2009 to 2023, Parents Defending Education found a total of almost $18 million in Chinese government funding of U.S. K-12 schools through the program. For example, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. “received more than $1 million in financial aid from Chinese government-affiliated entities over the course of a decade.”
As Nicki Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, explained during Tuesday’s edition of “Washington Watch,” the Trump administration was able to rein in Confucius Institute funding in higher education through the Higher Education Act, which requires colleges and universities to be transparent about foreign funding — but there are no such requirements for K-12 schools in place. “[F]righteningly, I think this is only the tip of the iceberg,” she warned. “And so there’s a lot more out there. And we intend to continue following this up.” MORE