When parents send their children to school, they expect classrooms that encourage critical thinking, open dialogue, and learning without political influence. But these principles are threatened when foreign governments like the Chinese Communist Party set themselves up in our education system. This is why I introduced the Promoting Responsible Oversight To Eliminate Communist Teachings (PROTECT) Our Kids Act.
The PROTECT Our Kids Act prohibits federal dollars from going to any elementary or secondary school that receives direct or indirect support, whether funding or operational support, from the CCP. The influence of the CCP in the American education system is often found in the form of “Confucius Classrooms” — programs that are backed by the Chinese government and implemented directly inside our children’s schools. This allows the CCP to staff classrooms, provide curriculum, and require teachers to sign contracts ensuring they do not damage the national interest of China.
The goals of the CCP’s Confucius Classrooms are not to simply teach children Chinese history and Mandarin — these classrooms are a part of a larger global strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative. The BRI has been used by the CCP to spread its malign influence for over a decade with one goal in mind: increasing the CCP’s economic and political dominance over the U.S. and the rest of the free world.
The issue of CCP influence in our education system may seem alarmist, but the CCP has spent over a decade embedding itself in our elementary and secondary schools with the establishment of Confucius Classrooms and Confucius Institutes at our colleges and universities. Thankfully, Congress has taken critical steps over the years to mitigate CCP propaganda at the postsecondary level, but the CCP has since turned their attention to our K-12 schools where our children are the most susceptible.
This legislation is only concerned with educational programs that are funded and supported by the CCP — it does not prevent schools from teaching students Chinese culture and language independently. Exposure to different languages and cultures helps students succeed in an increasingly interconnected world, and this bill does not limit that learning in any way.
What does the PROTECT Our Kids Act do then? It prevents the CCP from using cultural education as a façade to push propaganda sponsored by one of our greatest adversaries that has documented human rights violations and an authoritarian agenda that is the antithesis to the democratic principles our country was founded on. These values should never be promoted in a U.S. classroom.
For schools actively hosting a CCP-funded Confucius Classroom, they have a full year to come into compliance before losing federal funding. This timeline provides flexibility while making clear that CCP influence in our schools is unacceptable.
Our classrooms should be environments that foster learning and growth while preparing today’s students to be our future leaders. Oklahoma families deserve confidence that when they send their children to school, they’re taught material that reflects American values, not the values of adversarial, foreign nations that stand against everything that makes our country great.
Protecting our children from foreign influence should not be a partisan issue, and it is encouraging that members from both sides of the aisle joined together to pass the PROTECT Our Kids Act out of the House.
I look forward to the further advancement of my legislation so we can ensure classrooms remain places of education – not indoctrination.
Congressman Kevin Hern represents Oklahoma’s First Congressional District, serving as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee and a member on the House Ways and Means Committee.
