House Republicans are doing something long overdue: shutting the door on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in our K–12 schools. This week, they’re pushing forward a series of bills to block foreign meddling in American classrooms—especially from the CCP, which has been quietly embedding itself in our education system for years. These bills send a clear signal: America’s children should be learning about freedom, not communism.
Let’s be clear. This isn’t just about classroom materials or language lessons. This is about national security. It’s about whether we’re going to allow a hostile regime—one that openly calls the United States its main adversary—to shape the minds of our future leaders. And for years, we’ve been asleep at the wheel while the CCP has worked its way into hundreds of schools under the guise of “culture” and “language programs.”
One of the key targets of this new legislation is something called “Confucius Classrooms.” These are the K–12 equivalents of the Confucius Institutes that were once embedded in American universities. According to a 2023 report from the group Parents Defending Education, there were 143 of these programs in the U.S., in 34 states and the District of Columbia. Shockingly, 20 of them were located near U.S. military bases. That is not a coincidence—it is a strategic move by the CCP to gather information and influence the communities that support our armed forces.
Thankfully, most of these programs have now shut down, but we know how the CCP operates. They don’t quit. They rebrand and sneak back in under new names. A 2019 Senate report found 519 schools participating in Confucius Classrooms at that time. And that same report revealed that Chinese teachers brought in for these programs had to report to the Chinese embassy within a month of arriving in the U.S. That’s not education—that’s surveillance.
Under the leadership of President Trump and a Republican-led House, this nonsense is finally being put to an end.
One of the bills, H.R. 1069—the PROTECT Our Kids Act—introduced by Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, cuts off federal funding to any school that takes money or support from the Chinese regime. That includes Confucius Classrooms or anything like them. If a school wants American tax dollars, it better not be promoting Chinese communist propaganda.
Another bill, H.R. 1005—the CLASS Act, introduced by Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio—goes a step further. It not only bans schools from signing contracts with the Chinese but also requires full disclosure of any foreign money or agreements. Joyce put it plainly: the CCP is trying to interfere in our curriculum. That’s a national security threat, and it needs to be treated like one.
Then there’s the TRACE Act, H.R. 1049, from Rep. Aaron Bean of Florida. This bill gives power back to parents by making sure schools notify them if foreign governments are involved in funding, staffing, or teaching. As Bean said, “American schools are for education, not espionage.” And he’s right. We shouldn’t be giving hostile foreign powers access to our children, period.
This is a fight about more than just schools. It’s about sovereignty. It’s about whether America controls its own institutions or whether we’ve handed them over to the highest foreign bidder. The CCP sees education as a battlefield, and they’ve used soft power to try and win influence without firing a shot. But now, under strong Republican leadership, that ends.
And the American people are behind it. A recent poll found that 91 percent of parents want schools to disclose when they get foreign funding. That includes 94 percent of Republican parents and even 90 percent of Democrat parents. This is not a partisan issue. It’s a patriotic one.
The bottom line is simple: if we don’t protect our children from foreign influence now, we risk raising a generation that doesn’t know what it means to be American. That’s exactly what the CCP wants. But with these new bills, Congress is drawing a red line. American schools must teach American values. And if the Chinese Communist Party has a problem with that, they can keep their money and their influence out of our country.