John Moolenaar Presses Secretary McMahon On CCP's Attempts To 'Influence' Education System

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) spoke about China's attempts to influence the American education system.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Madam Secretary.

00:03I appreciate you being with us today.

00:06I, along with Senator Tim Scott, co-chair the School Choice Caucus,

00:13and I was really pleased to hear your priorities,

00:16your focus on accountability, local control,

00:19empowering parents and students.

00:22And one of the things that become very clear to me

00:26is this need for families to have options.

00:29And you've spelled out a number of different options that are available.

00:34Can you tell me what you plan to do

00:38and any initiatives you might take that would expand options for parents and students?

00:43Well, certainly we are going to support,

00:45and if you look at the numbers that are in the President's budget,

00:49he's also including an increase of $60 million for charter schools.

00:54The President absolutely believes, as do I,

00:57that the more choice that parents have, the better off the students are.

01:02And we've seen that repeatedly in different states.

01:05Governor Reynolds in Iowa has talked about how in introducing school choice programs in her state,

01:11that public schools have improved.

01:14There's competition among the schools.

01:16Schools are better when they have the opportunity, you know,

01:20to compete, and schools can do what they need.

01:23And parents can put, they can put students where they know they will thrive,

01:27in different, whatever that school program is.

01:30I mean, we've looked at different schools.

01:32I was talking to Governor Stitt from Oklahoma yesterday,

01:34and he was telling me about one of the special schools that they've set up in Oklahoma

01:39is relative to, now I'll forget the exact title,

01:43but it was mechanics for airplanes.

01:46And he said, look, in my community, this is very, very strong.

01:50And so part of the schooling that we are developing for those

01:53is to having these, you know, to start your life, to make a good wage.

01:58And while I still believe in secondary education, in higher education for many, many students,

02:04I think that's not the right pathway for every single student.

02:07And I think we need to focus on the programs in those communities, in those schools,

02:12and give local communities the opportunity to develop their curriculum,

02:17as I mentioned with Governor Stitt, around what is necessary needs for their community.

02:22We'll have more success.

02:24We'll have higher graduation rates.

02:26We'll have students stay in school when they can focus on subjects that are of interest to them.

02:31And I just think that that's going to be incredibly important as we move forward

02:35in how we look at our education landscape.

02:39Thank you very much.

02:40And I want to turn to the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in our educational system.

02:48Two years ago, I asked your predecessor, Secretary Cardona,

02:53if he was aware of efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to influence the U.S. education system.

02:58And I was surprised he told me he wasn't really aware of that.

03:02Are you familiar with the efforts by the CCP to influence American education?

03:09By things I have heard, yes.

03:12And one of the things that we are stressing very much under Section 117

03:16is to make sure that these colleges and universities are complying with the law

03:21and reporting to us when they have received donations over the $250,000 minimum.

03:27We found that there are many that are not doing that.

03:30One of the things that we put in place is to make sure that as universities are looking at their hiring practices,

03:39what kind of vetting are they doing with those particular professors that they're bringing in

03:45or students that might be coming in on campus?

03:48What can be that effect and that influence?

03:50But it is very important, I think, for us to know how much money is coming in from foreign countries.

03:57And last year, our select committee on the Chinese Communist Party released a report, CCP on the Quad,

04:05and it detailed how federally funded research at universities has advanced the CCP's military goals.

04:12We also highlighted concerns about how many American universities have joint institutes in China

04:18where they partner with Chinese universities.

04:21As a result of this scrutiny from our committee, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Georgia Tech,

04:29and Oakland University have all ended these joint institutes.

04:34And there are a number more that could be ended.

04:37I'm asking if you would consider leading an effort across the administration

04:42to work with those remaining universities with joint institutes to close them

04:47so we don't have continued efforts by our, in many cases, taxpayer dollars

04:54helping with the Chinese military-industrial complex funding.

05:00Well, we certainly are investigating a lot of those universities who do still have those ties,

05:06and I would like to work with you to make sure that we are operating our universities

05:10in the best interest of the people of the United States and our government.

05:15And I'm sure the Confucius Institutes are on your radar screen.

05:21I mean, sometimes their efforts morph into something very similar called the Confucius Classroom.

05:29Is that something that we can work with you on to prevent that malign influence into our K-12 system?

05:37Sure. I'd like to enjoy working with you on that.

05:39Thank you very much. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

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