Report finds Communist China spent $17 million in American K-12 schools

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A recent report found that Communist China is heavily involved in America’s K-12 schools, to the tune of spending over $17 million from 2009-2023 in multiple school districts across the country.

Parents Defending Education, a parental rights group, said that 143 school districts had active or inactive contracts with Communist China-backed programming in 34 states and the District of Columbia. 20 of these school districts are located near military bases.

The total spending amount was listed as $17,967,565.12.

Some of the school districts which still contract with the Communist Chinese government proxies are, as follows:

Cloverport Independent School District, KY
Minnetonka Public Schools, MN
St. Cloud Area School District, MN
Tulsa Public Schools, OK
Sisters School District, OR
Highland Park Independent School District, TX
Seattle Public Schools, WA

The report noted at least three specific examples of these contracts:

“Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has had ties to Tsinghua University High School—the high school affiliated with one of China’s top military schools, Tsinghua University.”
“Simpson County Public Schools in Kentucky entered into an agreement with North China Electric Power University to operate Western Kentucky University’s Confucius Institute.”
“North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics received a “Confucius Classroom of the Year” award from Hanban in 2018.”

The parental rights group noted, “While the United States is not officially part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese state media has touted the work done by Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms to further the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence.”

It is clear that Communist China is a main adversary to America, but the report exposed how the education bureaucracy’s coziness and closeness with the Communist regime could make parents think twice before enrolling their children in public schools.