Unique: A new bill introduced in the House on Friday seeks to mandate that parents be informed of any foreign-sourced or funded curriculum as a condition for their child’s school to receive federal aid.
The topic has become increasingly important in recent months, as states like Oklahoma have sought to reduce the impact of allegedly connected programs. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) such as “Confucius Classroom.”
In Congress, members of the House Education and Workforce Committee advanced the bill Friday afternoon and are expected to move it through the legislative process soon, lawmakers told Fox News Digital.
The TRACE (Transparency in Reporting Adverse Contributions to Education) Act would require schools to give parents the opportunity to review any curriculum they have provided or purchased. Foreign funds.
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It would also require that schools inform parents about any foreign contracts or financial transactions they make.
This Act is also intended as a supplement to Parents Bill of Rights, The legislation, drafted by Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., could pass the House in 2023. The legislation would grant parents more than a dozen defined “rights” that provide greater access and transparency over their child’s daily education.
Friday’s bill also requires that parents be informed of how many school employees, if any, are being paid by another country or a “foreign entity of concern” and whether foreign individuals have made donations to the institution.
Representative Virginia FoxxR-N.C., chairs the House Education Committee, and he said Friday that the TRACE Act would give parents better information.
“We know that significant investment from foreign countries is flowing into U.S. K-12 schools, potentially influencing decisions about personnel or curriculum,” Fox said.
“As things currently stand, school administrators are not required to disclose where their funding comes from. This is unacceptable.”
Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Florida.The TRACE Act’s chief sponsor, said American schools are “for education, not spying” and that parents should have control.
“We cannot allow our students — who are the future of our great Nation — to be corrupted by foreign adversaries who are systematically and aggressively attempting to influence our nation’s K-12 schools,” Bean said.
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“Yet this is what happens when our educational institutions accept the Trojan horse of foreign funding. My bill aims to strengthen parents’ rights to know how foreign influence can affect their child’s classroom and impede foreign countries’ ability to reach America’s youth.”
In 2023, Oklahoma’s top elected education official also called on Congress to take action to reduce foreign influence in schools and vowed to remain at the forefront of fighting unwarranted interference in children’s education.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Education Ryan Walters said at the time that allowing foreign influence in U.S. schools was a risk to national security, especially without the public or parents knowing. His comments came after his office investigated a school district that was using “Confucius Classroom” programs.
On Friday, Walters spoke with Fox News Digital about the broader topic. Foreign interference in schools He referenced his investigation of the Tulsa school system at the time, which he said was now resolved.
In a statement to Fox News at the time, Tulsa Public Schools said the district “has no Confucius Classroom program in its schools.” In a report by The Oklahoman, the district reportedly funded a professional development class for a Chinese language teacher at one high school, facilitated through the Confucius Classroom Coordinating Office of an outside organization based in Texas.
Walters said the school was technically correct in claiming it did not hold such an event because the timing was after the state announced the upcoming ban.
“What we found shocking was that the money was hidden from parents, and in fact the Chinese Communist Party was giving the money to a nonprofit organization that was working directly with the school,” he said Friday.
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He said Oklahoma led the nation in examining foreign influence in domestic curriculum, and noted that Florida later followed in issuing similar guidelines.
“What we’ve done in our agency is we have not allowed districts to partner with countries that are adversaries of the United States, as determined by our national security groups,” he said.
Walters said parents in Oklahoma need to know “who is teaching their children” and what they are being taught.
He warned that without such oversight, the threat of foreign influence from malign nations would persist, just as Mao Zedong’s “Little Red Book” influenced a generation and shaped its thinking. Chinese student.
Walters’ Aug. 29, 2023 order, provided to Fox News Digital, requires superintendents across the state to provide her office with a list of foreign governments or organizations that have provided money or “in-kind services” to districts and the dollar amount.
Walters said he has given schools about two weeks to comply.
