The Daily Signal - State Schools Chief Seeks Answers on District’s Reported Ties to Chinese Government

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

Parents Defending Education’s new report, “Little Red Classrooms,” offers some worrisome information about China’s reach in U.S. K-12 schools through so-called Confucius Classrooms. The report notes that Parents Defending Education “uncovered contracts that show Confucius Classrooms, or other Chinese government-backed programming, are still in operation” in a number of schools throughout the U.S., including Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma.  “On July 11, 2022, the Tulsa Public Schools board of education approved entering into an agreement with the Confucius Classroom Coordination Offices, which [operate] out of the International Leadership of Texas Global nonprofit,” the report says. “The Chinese International Education Foundation would cover the cost of the program. Carver Middle School offers students a ‘Confucius Connection’ through its ‘Global Awareness’ programming.” Ryan Walters, Oklahoma state superintendent of public instruction, says, “What we did is, we — immediately upon finding this out — we have required the district to turn over any contracts, any curriculum, anything that’s been handed out through this course.” “So, we are actively compiling that from the district right now to do a deep dive into, ‘Hey, what was the Chinese government trying to get in this classroom? What were the teachers discussing in these classes?'” Walters says, adding: So that’s what we’ve required of the district right now. So, we are going to be looking for that information to have a better understanding of what was being funneled into these classrooms.Walters joins today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss the Parents Defending Education report, whether he has spoken with any teachers, parents, or students at Tulsa’s Carver Middle School, and Tulsa Public Schools’ response to his Twitter video, “China will not be allowed in Oklahoma schools.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What you've seen here is the Chinese communist government started funneling money into our universities and schools over a decade ago. And what it is is it is a way to undermine American heritage, undermine American institutions. This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, August 8th. I'm Samantha Sherris. And that was Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters. Just recently, parents defending education released a report. that offers some unsettling information about the reach of the People's Republic of China and U.S. K-12 schools through so-called Confucius classrooms.

Tulsa Public Schools in Oklahoma was identified in the report. Last week, Ryan posted a video to Twitter with a caption, China will not be allowed in Oklahoma schools. And he joins us today to discuss what is going on, what's reportedly being taught, and much more. We'll get to my interview with Ryan right after this. The Heritage Foundation is the most effective conservative policy organization in the country. Every semester, our interns are a vital part of that mission.

We pay competitively. We develop talent, and we give our interns access to some of the sharpest minds in the country. We're going on offense. So join us. To learn more about the Young Leaders Program here at the Heritage Foundation, please go to heritage.org slash intern. Ryan Walters is joining today's episode of the Daily Signal podcast. Ryan is the Oklahoma State Superintendent and previously served as the Oklahoma Education Secretary.

Ryan, thanks so much for joining us. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. Now just recently, parents defending education, which describes itself as a national grassroots organization working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful education. agendas, released a report titled Little Red Classrooms. The report itself offered some rather interesting and disturbing information about the reach and influence of the Chinese Communist Party in U.S.K. through 12 schools. Now, Tulsa Public Schools is listed in the report.

Just last week, you tweeted a video about this with the caption, China will not be allowed in Oklahoma schools. Can you first tell us a little bit more about what's going on here? Absolutely. So what you've seen here is the Chinese communist government started funneling money into our universities and schools over a decade ago. And what it is is a way to undermine American heritage, undermine American institutions by under the veil of this is about Chinese culture. This is, you know, kind of this path to just understand China better. What we've seen is we've seen information coming out of the Chinese government. It's clear what this is about. This is about undermining American. value, setting up this defense of communism and undermining America's institutions. So most colleges, the U.S. Congress did a deep dive into this. There are several reports out there. And so most colleges, universities went away from this. And yet we kind of thought this went away. What happened instead was the Chinese government started laundering this money through some

nonprofits, one particularly in Texas, and then giving it to the schools. So immediately, upon, you know, when we call them out, you know, Tulsa Public Schools response, it says, oh, this is a lie. We don't get money from the Chinese government. And guys, this is typical of what we see from the left. And now you're actually seeing it from a foreign government of laundering it through a nonprofit and then claiming, well, this didn't come from the Chinese government. Well, that's just ridiculous. It is. I cannot believe that we're dealing with this issue still. This absolutely has no place in our schools. And just to talk a little bit more about the report, it says that on July 11th, 2022, the Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education approved entering into an agreement with the Confucius

Classroom Coordination Offices, which operates out of the international leadership of Texas a global nonprofit. The Chinese International Education Foundation would cover the cost of the program. Carver Middle School offers students a Confucius' connection through its global awareness programming. Are you aware of what's, you know, reportedly being taught at Carver Middle School? That's a great question. What we did is we immediately upon finding this out, we have required the district to turn over any contracts, any curriculum, anything that's been handed out through this course. So we are actively compiling that from the district right now to do a deep dive into, hey, what was the Chinese

government trying to get in this classroom? What were the teachers discussed? in these classes. So that's what we've required of the district right now. So we are going to be looking for that information to have a better understanding of what was being funneled into these classrooms. And just speaking of teachers, have you talked to anyone at Carver Middle School, any teachers, any parents, students? No, we're still working on the information gathering stage. You know, this broke hard last week. And so, you know, we've been trying to, first of all, get the documentation. We do have our hands on evidence of these contracts. So, you know, the board and we had the board chair and the superintendent of Tulsa comes out and says,

oh, this is a lie. This hasn't happened. Well, of course it's happened. You know, this is just, you know, this is condescending to pretend like this wasn't a program coming from the Chinese government. And so right now that we're still in the stages of trying to get our hands around how large was it. What was the information that they were pushing in the classroom? What was the curriculum? Those are still some of the things, you know, how many kids were in these classes, how many teachers were involved. I mean, these are all the questions that we're, trying to get to the bottom of because again, we've got a district here that's just denying what's the obvious. And so we're trying to ensure that we have full accountability over that

district and ensure that we know what was going on. Absolutely. And as we've been talking about with this report, I want to just take a little bit deeper of a dive into, you know, its findings and why they're so both important to be aware of what's going on, obviously, in schools in America and also why they're so concerning and what parents should be aware of. Right. You know, and so one of the things we've seen, and just let's walk through this progression, we knew 20 or 30 years ago in our schools that kids weren't getting taught American history. I'm a history teacher.

It's my background. I began to see as I was getting in the profession of, you know, there's less around the founding era. There's less explanation of American exceptionalism. There's less of an emphasis towards primary sources, and I want to flag that. the reason that's so important is, you know, if you're not reading the Constitution and the Federalist papers, but instead you're reading what a 1970s professor says about the Constitution, it's easy to indoctrinate, it's easy to not explain to kids the importance of those documents and see them through a liberal lens. Well, we've gone from that to continuing to push things like critical race theory,

where it's literally undermining everything, all of our institutions saying that actually we didn't believe all these things, all these core principles. We were actually a country built in racism. So those lies have been pushing academia. Well, now, with this latest discovery, what you've seen is not only have we not taught American history, not only have we taught things that are a historical, lies that say America was based in racism

and that America is a terrible place, we have gone so far as to allow the Chinese government to come into our schools and teach our kids and undermine America, promote communism, it is unbelievable the transition we have seen in our education system in the last few decades. We absolutely have to fight back to get these things out. And what we're doing in Oklahoma is we've got to bring back an emphasis to those founding documents, understanding of American exceptionalism, an understanding of what the founders actually said, and let's do a deep dive into that so that kids can understand what makes this country great.

And as you brought this up earlier with the response from Tulsa Public Schools, they have, you know, responded to your video in a statement. I was reported by the Oklahomaan saying it does not receive money from the Chinese government as Superintendent Walters alleged without evidence. The statement also said at a time when our state faces catastrophic shortages and certified teachers and school funding superintendent, sorry, superintendents. Lieutenant Walters has chosen to focus on a Chinese language professional development opportunity for a single teacher. And that contrary to Superintendent Walters' accusations, the district takes no funds from the Chinese government. What are your thoughts on the district's response? And yeah, just tell us your response. Yeah, you know, you see this a lot in education. Unfortunately, we have allowed administrators. We have allowed through school board elections, people that are just, union activist into these positions that they lie. They lie and they distract. They don't want to talk about, by the way, what they don't want to talk about is Tulsa is one of our lowest performing districts in the state. They have over 14 of their elementary schools that are reading at less than 5% are on grade level in reading less than 5% in 14 of their elementary schools.

And yet, guess what their focus is? How do we get money from China? You know, how do we get it, you know, we get it to a nonprofit so we can make the argument. It's not technically from China. It's absurd. they should be ashamed of themselves for making these type of arguments. They are doing all they can to focus on these left-wing activist issues and push indoctrination in the classroom rather than getting kids to read, getting kids proficient in math. And folks, we've seen this, and this is where parents have awakened. Parents are so sick and tired of it. That's why we've seen school choice.

We have the biggest school choice initiative in state history that goes into effect this year. We're so proud of that. We have parent rights rules that we put in place through my Board of Education to ensure there's no pornography in classrooms and that parents are involved in any kind of conversation about sexuality, that that's not going on behind their backs. And parents are tired of this nonsense from these woke administrators that just lie, they continue to mislead, they continue to cover up what's going on in their districts. The reality is these are taxpayer dollars going into our schools. These are our kids. These are our communities. There is absolutely no reason that schools shouldn't be

high performing. Our kids shouldn't know the basics. Our kids shouldn't understand American exceptionalism. And so it is time that this education system is brought back to where it used to be, where we have the focus on where it needs to be, our kids' academic successes. And in addition to Tulsa Public Schools, the report from parents defending education, found that other, found that other schools, including Seattle Public Schools, Sisters School District in Oregon, Highland Park, Independent School District in Texas, just to name a few also were included in this report having either contracts or other Chinese backed programming that are still in operation. What do you think is at stake if we aren't able to, you know,

kind of undo this influence that we're seeing in these schools reportedly? Okay, so I'll be real direct with this. You know, what I think we're seeing here is if we do not act on these situations where you have Chinese influence into our schools, I don't know what the future is going to hold for the country, as we continue to allow not only parents to be pushed aside, bureaucrats to control schools, and now Chinese government, Chinese communist government influence into our schools and control. You know, this is the fear. If kids don't understand what makes this country great, where are we headed? You know what I mean? It's one of those things as a history teacher.

I think about World War II, right? I look at the letters from the soldiers, you read them, and they knew what they were fighting for. They were fighting for this incredible country. They were fighting for these core principles. By the way, they believe came from God. You know, that's the other thing that, you know, literally our schools, our institutions, want to eliminate any reference to faith whatsoever, even though it's historical. That's what they believe.

That's what the founders believed. Our rights came from. They thought it was crucial to a republic style of government that the people had morality. And their faith was an important key in that. That's why they protected religious liberties. But they want to take all of this out. They want to create atheism as a state religion. So that's the only thing that can be practiced in schools is atheism, and it's practiced

and pushed by the state apparatus. And if you continue down this line, you know, how do kids even understand, you know, first of all, would they ever fight for this country? Number one, number two, do they respect and appreciate anything about this country? And what so many before us held dear, we're here today in this great country because those that came before us understood that when we live up to those core principles. We are that shining city on a hill for the rest of the world. But if you don't even understand what those principles are, you don't understand our history, there is no future for this

country. And so I think that, I mean, this is an easy one. It should be. The Chinese government has no role in our classrooms. They should be run out of town. There shouldn't be any place for China in our schools. And then number two, we have got to get back on track of ensuring when our kids are taught American history. They are taught that exceptionalism. They are taught what our founders believed. And folks, this is an existential crisis for this country. The media is controlled by the left. So the media right there, all your news organizations, you know, your big corporate, you know, system there, pop culture is controlled by the left. You see it with TV, with movies, all that. And if we give up education, these are the three biggest fears of influence that we've,

seen in America largely, if we give those three over, you know, this next generation is never going to be able to continue on this great work that is America. And just along the lines of education, something you brought up earlier was the school choice initiative. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to talk more about that and what that will look like for this new school year. Yeah, it's a game changer for us. You know, we have largely champion charter schools here in the state. we've got some of our highest performing schools or charter schools. But, you know, that's not enough. You have to continue going. That's where we have a full school choice program that will launch this year so that every parent can attend a private school of their choice. They can use their money for

homeschooling if they so choose. We're also very proud. We're the first state to approve a religious charter school. We want more charter schools. We want, it's a Catholic chartered school. Again, we want more options for parents. We want parents. We want parents to be able to attend a private school if they choose. We want more charter schools in our state. And what this is going to do is create an environment here in Oklahoma where not only can kids be aligned to the school that best meets their needs, we're going to actually have a free market system that will cause constant improvement. And folks, you know, you guys hear this and it's always amazing to me to listen to people in education, try to claim that the free market principles

don't work in education. Oh, they absolutely work in education. The free market, core principles are built on human nature and the way that humans respond to incentives. When you have a state that fully embraces school choice, not only will kids be aligned to those better institutions, the institutions improve. We've seen this in every other industry. We've seen it in states like Arizona and Florida that have leaned into school choice early on. And so this isn't theoretical. We've seen it play out. We are very excited. And again, we are going to do more for school choice in Oklahoma than any other state. We're very proud. of that first religious charter school, we're going to keep pushing to get as many folks involved

in our kids' education as possible because that means more options, that means a more free market system, and it means better student achievement. And Ryan, just before we go, I believe a number of school districts in Oklahoma are getting underway into their school year. I believe this week, actually, and I wanted to get your thoughts on just final question as both a former teacher and also a parent, given your role as a state school superintendent, some ways that parents can be better informed about what their children are learning, how they can be more active or involved in what their kids are learning in their education. Yeah, I love this time of the year.

I'm a former teacher. I've got four little kids, three are going to our local public school here starting the school year off, so they're all excited. I got meet the teacher tomorrow night. We're really excited about all these things. But, you know, for parents, what I would say is, because you get involved. in your school, get involved in every level. So when I say every level, talk to your teacher, ask your teacher that you want to see what's going on in the classroom. You want to be a part of what

your kids are learning. You want to see that. Number two, I would go even further, talk to the school administrators, talk to the school board, tell them that you want to see you're very active. You want to be involved. You want full transparency around where money is spent, but also the curriculum. Again, I'm amazed that the left has taken on the position that, you know, what your kids are taught doesn't matter. The curriculum doesn't matter. That, you know, gender, queer, and Flamer are on the same academic value level as the Bible and the Constitution. I mean, the absurdity of that, we have always known, going back hundreds of years, what you put in front of your kids is important, okay? What they're reading is important. What is entering into their mind is important.

Of course, everything in a school should have academic value. And so as parents, ask what the kids are learning. Look at the material. Let your school board and let your principals know. You're looking at these things. Ask them for a focus on things with high academic value. I'm a huge believer in teaching the classics, classical learning. The kids need to understand there's academic value to Huckleberry Finn. There's academic value to the Great Gadsby. There's a reason why we've all read these novels for so long because there's a lot of benefit there. I love the book of virtues. I always hand it out to administrators when I meet them of, hey, William Bennett did a great service of Secretary of Education by saying, look, let's make sure kids can read, but let's make sure they're also reading things that back up values.

And so I think that as parents continue to push, look at curriculum, look at where money is spent. The other thing is, you know, here in Oklahoma, districts have record amounts of money. Where's the money going? Are they actually spending it in the classroom on your kids? Or are they growing bureaucracy? It drives me absolutely nuts to see how much money is spent, creating more administrative positions rather than bringing in great teachers and getting them the curriculum and resources that they need. And again, if you are not being listened to, go to those board meetings, speak out.

I'm telling you right now, one of the most optimistic movements I've seen are groups like Moms for Liberty, these groups that say, listen, we're going to show up at the board meetings and ask questions. And again, school districts that want to be high performing should welcome the fact that their communities are so involved and engaged, that they actually come to their school board meetings. When I first started as a teacher, that was one of the things that I kept hearing from my, my colleagues, is, you know, used to, you know, more people would show up to these things, and now no one comes. Well, now we're at a stage where we've got groups that do show up, do ask questions. Don't lose that. They're going to attack you. The left is going to try to bully you

and intimidate you. Movements like these parent groups are going to be what gets our schools back on track, which will get our communities back on track, which will eventually get our country back on track. So don't lose faith. The momentum is in your favor. We are going to get this education system back on track. And that's going to do it for today's episode. We've included a link to the Parents Defending Education Report in today's show notes. So be sure to check it out if you haven't already. And also, if you haven't had the chance, make sure you subscribe to the Daily Signal wherever you get your podcasts. And help us reach more listeners. by leaving a five-star rating and review.

We read all of your feedback. Thanks again for listening. Have a great Tuesday, and we'll be back with you all this afternoon for top news. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation. Executive producers are Rob Bly and Kate Trinko. Producers are Virginia Allen and Samantha O'Sheras.

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