October 2020 — Ed Report Monthly Email Edition

China Meddling in U.S. Education

Reports have been popping up for years about the extensive reach of “Hanban,” also known as the Chinese Confucius Institutes, into U.S. classrooms K-12 through university level. Last May, for example, 

The National Pulse and WorldNetDaily called attention to the China-based online learning platform Lingo Bus, which had found its way into dozens of Utah public schools at the urging of former Utah State Senator Howard Stephenson. Stephenson’s affiliation with the Confucius Institutes likely helped facilitate the move. (See the June 2020 Education Reporter email.) 

What are the Confucius Institutes, and why should parents be worried? The name itself is ingenious, conjuring up images of ancient Chinese culture, folklore and wisdom. To teach such subjects is one thing, but Hanban is actually little more than a propaganda arm for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

College Board Involvement

In July, The National Pulse reported that the prestigious 120-year-old College Board, the oversight organization for U.S. college entrance exams, “is helping to embed Chinese Communist Party-funded Confucius Institutes in American high schools, granting the Chinese government the ability to dictate what is taught in classrooms.” The College Board has in fact brought “guest teachers” from China in partnership with Hanban since 2007, and these teachers help develop curriculum. While parents might expect their children to learn about Chinese history and culture, students are more likely to be harangued about social justice and racial issues within the United States. 

The College Board’s involvement with Hanban is egregious, especially in light of its management of the very assessment tests that have been hacked by China, including the SAT, which Reuters reported had been compromised in China without reprisal from the College Board, even while the organization “tightened security in smaller countries where exams had leaked.”

Failure to Disclose

Last June, the Washington Free Beacon conducted a review of federal records revealing that some 75 colleges and universities failed to disclose their Confucius Institutes funding, despite the Department of Education’s requirement that “all credentialed universities disclose foreign gifts of more than $250,000.” Of the 22 institutions that actually responded to the Beacon’s inquiry, most claimed that their actual funding fell shy of the $250,000 minimum. But this unreported funding by foreign interests, particularly the CCP, is a source of concern for education experts, who warn that “the widespread failure to report the foreign funding leaves millions of dollars worth of Chinese government funding in the dark.”  

More recently, the U.S. Department of Education has stepped up efforts to crack down on universities who fail to disclose foreign funding, including donations from China. The Department admitted in August through one of its lawyers that colleges and universities have hidden “at least $600 million from China” since 2010. 

The Education Department’s efforts are reportedly already producing results. According to a department letter to House Republicans, “Universities have retroactively disclosed $6.5 billion in previously unreported foreign funding from Chinese and Middle Eastern sources. Universities with Confucius Institutes appear to be no exceptions to this new wave of disclosures.” But what does this say about our educational institutions which for years have allowed the CCP to successfully peddle its propaganda to impressionable U.S. students while hiding the payoffs from parents and the U.S. Education Department?   

Pompeo and DeVos Warn About Confucius Institutes, TikTok

The Confucius Institutes and other vehicles of Chinese influence and spying, such as the social media video-sharing platform TikTok, have aroused the attention of the U.S. State Department as well as the Department of Education. The two departments have joined forces and sent letters to education officials in all 50 states warning about “China’s influence on learning” in this country, and specifically identifying the Confucius Institutes as “an important element of the PRC’s global influence campaign, now reaching tens of thousands of U.S. schoolchildren every day.” The letter, dated October 9, 2020, was signed by both Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Chinese-owned TikTok has been on the Federal Trade Commission’s radar for years, having been fined for neglecting to prevent the indiscriminate sharing of videos of underage children. Last spring, a group called the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood demanded that the FTC take punitive action against TikTok for failure to destroy “the personal information” collected from underage users. The National Pulse reported in July that India banned TikTok despite incurring the displeasure of its powerful neighbor. The article quoted a number of cyber sleuths who investigated the program, including one who implicated TikTok as “a data collection service” which is “essentially malware that is targeting children.” Most recently, the State Department called TikTok an app used “to spy on the U.S. and its allies.” 

With these developments, parents may experience a glimmer of hope that the years-long influence peddling, spying and propagandizing of the CCP in U.S education may at last be approaching its day of reckoning. Washington Free Beacon, 6-15-20; The National Pulse, 7-5-20 & 7-13-20; Washington Examiner, 10-12-20; State ED Joint Letter to Chief State School Officers

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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Addresses Phyllis Schlafly Eagles

Following are verbatim remarks the U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, made in a conference call with leaders of the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organization on October 7. Eagle leaders from across the country took part in a question-and-answer session following the secretary’s address.

Hello, everyone! I’m so pleased you’re staying engaged and active in your own communities about important issues facing everyone right now.

We’re living through an uncharted, turbulent time in public life. Your founder, Phyllis Schlafly, always modeled how to weather storms quite well. Learning from her example, I know we’ll emerge stronger and better, although probably not with our hair quite as coiffed!

There was a lot a recent television series got wrong about Phyllis and about that stormy time in American politics. But it did get one thing right: Phyllis and our ideas prevailed!

Phyllis believed in more freedom for every American and nowhere is that more needed than in education. She called our education “system” America’s “biggest and most inefficient monopoly.” Sadly, that descriptor is still right today.

This COVID crisis has revealed—like never before—the sorry state of affairs in education. Parents are more aware than ever before how and whether their children are—or are not—learning. And far too many of them—maybe you, or maybe someone you know—are stuck with no options, no help, and no way out.

That’s why President Trump and I are fighting every day for more choices, more opportunities, more education freedom for all students. The president promised in 2016 to “provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America.” Here’s how we’re keeping that promise:

• First, we restored state, local, and family control of education by faithfully implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act,
  • by ending Common Core, 
  • and by urging Congress to put an end to education earmarks in the Federal budget by proposing to consolidate nearly all Federal K-12 programs into one block grant with fewer Federal strings attached
• And, importantly, we’ve lit a prairie fire across America for parental “school choice.” Countless surveys show that more families today support parental choice than ever before. 
  • A very recent RealClear Opinion survey found that three out of four families with children in public schools want their education dollars to follow their children wherever they go to learn. 
    • Notably, 73 percent of black families and 71 percent of Hispanic families say they want the same thing.
• To that end, we proposed establishing a federal tax-credit to support parental choice programs in states and encouraged states to expand their existing state programs.
  • And they did. More students in Arizona, Florida, and even in Illinois have more choices.
• We expanded the D.C. voucher program by 50 percent, and the demand continues to grow.
• We supported the creation of more public charter schools, with a particular focus in Opportunity Zones,
  • 70 percent of which currently have zero public charter schools.
• We reformed the tax code so families can use tax-preferred 529 savings accounts for expenses related to K-12 education.
• We reminded states that no one forfeits their right to pray anywhere, including in public schools.
• We are not enforcing unconstitutional prohibitions on school districts contracting with tutors, counselors, or other similar secular services simply because of their religious affiliation. 
• We are protecting the right of students on campus to organize their faith-based clubs as they see fit.
• We joined Montana parents in their fight to end the “last acceptable prejudice” made manifest in bigoted Blaine Amendments which deny students the freedom to pursue faith-based education.
• We’re strongly urging that schools be open for full-time instruction and learning. Open for in-person learning as an option for the families who want or who need it and open for distance learning as an option for those who want or need that.
• And we support the bipartisan School Choice Now Act, which would directly fund families and allow them to choose the best educational setting for their children.

A majority in the United States Senate recently voted in favor of Senator Tim Scott’s School Choice Now provision. I think you all know Senator Scott. He knows firsthand that students need access to more education opportunities, more options—right now. 

Families could use these Scholarships to enhance distance learning or to pay for other costs tied to educating children at home. They could be used for tutoring, career and technical education, or transportation to a different public school. The Scholarships could support students attending the school that best meets their needs or matches their values.

At the end of the day, we want everyone to have the freedom and choices to make the best decision for their children. It’s been said that all great change in America starts around the kitchen table, then it spreads to communities, and then throughout the country. So, I urge each of you to talk with your neighbors, pray with your pastors, let local leaders know where you stand—raise your voices for school choice now!

Parental “school choice” is what all Americans want and need right now. I know you’ll join me and the president in fighting for that freedom. Thank you and I look forward to your questions.

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Education Breifs

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Book Review

Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story
Wilfred M. McClay, Encounter Books, 2019

Land of Hope is a history book that engrosses the reader like a good novel. Wilfred McClay has crafted a 

skillful yet comprehensive narrative of “the great American story” without glossing over the blemishes or minimizing our nation’s great achievements. As he points out in Chapter 1 “[H]istory always begins in the middle of things,” meaning that no matter where a writer chooses to start a historical account, there is always “something essential that came before, some prior context that is assumed.” Thus Land of Hope begins with Columbus’ discovery of the New World, which McClay calls “the signal event in the making of America,” that neither the explorer nor the world grasped during his lifetime. An interesting note in the discovery story is the fact that even the indigenous peoples who populated the Americas at the time of Columbus had originally migrated from somewhere else.

While generally a political history of the United States, McClay’s work also provides a look at the developing culture. As may be expected, he details the founding of the United States, bringing the characters and the era to life in both their glory and their flaws. It’s sobering to realize that generations to come may not know of the amazing feat the Founders accomplished in drafting our unique Constitution and Bill of Rights, and may not even know the names of such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and the great leader George Washington. 

Particularly absorbing are the chapters surrounding the Civil War. The author includes all the nuances of the era: the battle over states rights and the many compromises made since the country’s founding that prolonged the struggle to end slavery. McClay also paints an in-depth portrait of Abraham Lincoln, his statesmanship and his persistence in trying to solve the complex problems of wartime, and the full extent of the tragic events that followed his assassination. 

The author profiles each U.S. President, starting with George Washington and culminating with the election of Donald J. Trump. He gives a generally unbiased view of each man and his politics, as well as each one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, and manner of governing. It’s a glimpse that many of us have never seen, even those who were properly schooled in U.S. History. We learn a lot about the various political movements, such as the Progressive and Eugenics movements, and their often negative impacts on our society and government. 

Along the way, we meet other historical figures who shaped our country for the good, such as frontiersman, folk hero, and Congressman Davy Crockett, who opposed the policies that forcibly removed American Indians from their lands.  

McClay also focuses in-depth on the two world wars and the Great Depression that occurred between them, describing the many political figures, events and social nuances surrounding these dark times. It’s interesting, for example, that only Prime Minister Winston Churchill seemed to fully understand the intentions of Soviet leader Josef Stalin, and that if General (and later President) Dwight D. Eisenhower had agreed with him, the world may not have experienced the partitioning of Germany or the Soviet conquest of eastern Europe to the extent that it happened following World War II.   

While Land of Hope broadly recounts the history of America over nearly three centuries, it leaves the reader wishing for more, as any single-volume work of this caliber and scope is wont to do. A more social studies approach, especially with regard to the storied settling of the great American West and the many discoveries and feats of bravery associated with it, would be more romantically satisfying. And although McClay discusses the religious influences throughout our nation’s history in a mostly unbiased fashion, he does not address its gradual eviction from the public square and how that development has impacted our politics and culture.

Overall, Land of Hope does much to give readers just that, hope, with a truthful overview of where we began and where we are today. The author acknowledges the difficulty of writing an unbiased account of more recent history and admits he may not have succeeded in doing so. Nonetheless, his narrative is very eye-opening in that it brings home just how much the tensions of the past still exist today, and how the growth of the federal government has usurped anything the founders envisioned, even as our Constitution continues to be the law of the land. 

This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a fair and balanced view of U.S. History, and particularly for upper class high school students and college freshman to counteract the biased views of Howard Zinn and others who would completely distort our history. From cover to cover, McClay’s message comes through loud and clear that the United States of America, despite its problems and challenges, remains the envy of the world, founded on the principles of freedom and a God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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