WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week joined U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Senate colleagues in a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressing concerns over new reports showing millions of dollars from Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked entities have flowed into America’s K-12 classrooms. The Senate letter also requests the U.S. Department of Education to conduct a nationwide audit to determine the extent of funding from hostile foreign adversaries in schools. The call for an investigation comes amid revelations that, 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 K-12 educational system.
Joining Risch and Scott are Senators Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee, John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).
“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.”
Full text of the letter can be found here.
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