Public displays of antisemitism on college campus over the last year have focused attention on foreign entities funding American higher education. But less publicized — and more insidious — are foreign influences in K-12 schools.

Many young adults are arriving on their college campuses already radicalized. Much of that is due to the subtle, hostile influences that they’re exposed to in grade school. Congress must address this critical problem for the sake of the next generation.

In September 2023, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce held a hearing about how the Chinese Communist Party was influencing the American education system in public and private K-12 schools. Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction at the time, told lawmakers that the “Confucius Classrooms” program was a national security threat, and that Congress should “pass a law to ban schools from accepting money from hostile foreign governments.”

Walters was absolutely correct. China is an expert at using “soft power” to exert its influence around the world. Rather than march an army into enemy territory or fund terrorist groups, China uses industry, infrastructure and education to undermine its competitors…

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