Foreign governments have no business shaping what American children are taught in public classrooms, yet the quiet expansion of Qatari influence into U.S. K-12 education suggests that is precisely what is beginning to happen.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, public records from the state of Georgia show that Qatar Foundation International (QFI)the U.S.-based charitable arm of Qatars royal familyis bankrolling a range of education initiatives in the states primary and secondary schools, including K-12 teacher trainings, Arabic-language materials for young students, and student trips to Qatar itself.
While Qatar has long been the largest foreign donor to American universities, its growing footprint in Georgias public school system raises serious questions about foreign influence, transparency, and the ideological content being introduced into taxpayer-funded classrooms.
At present, parents have virtually no way of knowing when foreign governments or their proxies are underwriting programs in their childrens schools, because federal law does not require K-12 institutions to disclose foreign funding. By contrast, colleges and universities must report any foreign gift or contract exceeding $250,000 in a calendar year, a basic transparency standard that inexplicably does not apply to the schools educating Americas youngest and most impressionable students.
A proposed federal measure, the TRACE ACT, now languishing in Congress, would begin to close this dangerous loophole by requiring public K-12 schools to disclose any donation from a foreign country or a foreign entity of concern. Under the bill, such entities include organizations subject to the direction of hostile regimes in Iran, North Korea, and Russiagovernments whose influence operations are rightly treated as a national security issue, not a benign cultural exchange.
Given Qatars record of pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into influence campaigns aimed at the United States, there is a compelling case that it, too, should be formally designated as an entity of concern for the purposes of K-12 transparency. Documents from Georgia alone show that QFI has spent at least $281,000 on education-related activities in the state, a nontrivial sum when directed at curriculum, teacher training, and student travel.
That total includes at least $79,000 to Amana Academy, a public charter school in Alpharetta that requires its students to study Arabic, and $202,000 to Georgia State University for Arabic teacher training initiatives.
In addition to these grants, QFI in 2021 awarded scholarshipsof undisclosed amountsto eight K-12 students across Georgia to attend an "immersive Arabic experience" in Atlanta and Detroit, the latter home to one of the largest Arab communities in the United States. These are not incidental gestures of goodwill; they are targeted investments in shaping who teaches Arabic, how it is taught, and what cultural and political narratives accompany the language instruction.
Amana Academy, a K-8 charter school serving families in the Fulton County School District just outside Atlanta, has been a particular beneficiary of QFIs largesse. Records indicate that from 2019 through March 2025, QFI provided at least $79,100 to the school, which brands itself as a STEM-focused, expeditionary learning institution but also mandates Arabic study for its students.
In 2023, Amana Academywhose name, the school notes, is derived from the Arabic word for "trust"publicly thanked QFI for a grant that funded a nine-day "cultural tour" of Qatar for 14 students and three staff members. On its LinkedIn page, the school proudly notes that its relationship with QFI stretches back more than a decade, underscoring that this is not a one-off partnership but a long-term pipeline of Qatari-backed programming into a U.S. public charter school.
Georgia State University has also emerged as a key node in QFIs network. Between 2021 and 2025, QFI awarded five grants to the university, earmarked to support staff and training for the Arabic Teachers Council of the South, an organization that brings together K-12 and university educators from across the southern states. The councils mission includes hosting teacher trainings and recruiting more Arabic instructors, effectively seeding QFI-aligned pedagogical approaches throughout the regions school systems.
Because current federal law only compels higher education institutions to report foreign gifts or contracts totaling $250,000 or more in a calendar year, Georgia State had no obligation to disclose these QFI grants to the Department of Education. This legal blind spot means that even when foreign money is shaping teacher training and curriculum development, parents and policymakers may remain entirely unaware of who is paying the bills and what ideological strings may be attached.
QFI is not an independent charity in any meaningful sense; it answers directly to the highest echelons of Qatars ruling family, which presides over an absolute monarchy. The organization is the U.S. branch of the Doha-based Qatar Foundation, whose chairperson is Her Highness Sheika Moza bint Nasser, the mother of the current emir and one of the most powerful figures in the country.
According to the Qatar Foundation website, QFI is "dedicated to Arabic language and culture education for students and teachers across the world." On its face, that mission sounds innocuous, even laudable, but context matters: the values and political positions of the regime behind the funding cannot be divorced from the content it promotes in American classrooms.
Qatar is often described as a nominal U.S. ally, hosting American military assets and engaging in diplomatic mediation, yet its foreign policy record is deeply troubling. The regime has supported U.S.-designated terrorist organizations and the Muslim Brotherhood, and it maintains extensive ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran, a leading state sponsor of terrorism.
Most alarmingly, Qatar has been a major financier of Hamas, the Islamist group responsible for some of the most brutal attacks on Israeli civilians, and it hosts Hamass political office on its soil while allowing top Hamas leaders to reside comfortably in the country. The Talibans political office is likewise based in Doha, making Qatar a hub for extremist movements that are fundamentally hostile to Western values and U.S. interests.
When a regime with this track record is underwriting programs in American schools, prudence dictates that its money should be kept far away from U.S. classrooms, particularly those serving young children. There are already strong indications that QFI-backed initiatives are promoting values and content that clash with the preferences of many American parents, especially those who hold conservative, pro-Israel, or traditional views.
The Arabic Teachers Council of the South, which QFI helps fund, describes itself on its website as a community of educators from universities and K-12 schools across the southern United States. Yet a March 2024 training video posted on YouTube, produced by the council in partnership with QFI and titled "Using Films to Explore Social Justice Issues in Arabic Classes," reveals a clear ideological agenda that goes well beyond neutral language instruction.
In the video, teachers trade advice on how to weave "social justice" themes into Arabic curricula, even when they anticipate that parents may object. One instructor candidly acknowledges the cultural and political divide she faces in her own school environment, stating, "I teach at an Episcopal private school where the majority of the population is of a Christian background and some are more on the conservative right side," and explaining that she secures approval for controversial topics from the schools diversity coordinator.
Her advice to colleagues is strikingly blunt: "Let that person be a shieldotherwise you are opening yourself to being attacked by the parents," she says, effectively encouraging teachers to circumvent parental authority and use bureaucratic gatekeepers to insulate ideological content from scrutiny. This posture reflects a broader progressive trend in education that treats parentsespecially conservative parentsas obstacles to be managed rather than partners in their childrens upbringing.
The same training session recommends using the controversial 2005 Palestinian film Paradise Now as a classroom teaching tool. The film, which follows two Palestinian friends preparing to carry out a suicide bombing in Israel, has long been criticized for its sympathetic portrayal of terrorists and its moral ambiguity regarding violence against civilians.
That such a film is being promoted in QFI-linked teacher trainings for K-12 educators should raise red flags for any parent concerned about the normalization of anti-Israel narratives or the romanticization of terrorism in school settings. It also underscores how cultural programming can easily become a vehicle for political messaging aligned with Qatars own virulently anti-Israel stance.
QFIs influence is not confined to the South; the organization helps spearhead multiple Arabic teachers councils across the country, with chapters in New York, Chicago, Southern California, and other regions. These councils, funded and encouraged by QFI, serve as professional hubs where K-12 and university-level Arabic teachers network, share resources, and shape classroom content.
Evidence has already emerged that Qatars hostility toward Israel has seeped into these networks, with some council-affiliated teachers openly espousing hatred and even violence against Israel and Jews. That such individuals are entrusted with educating American children, while simultaneously being celebrated by a foreign-funded organization, should trouble anyone who believes schools should not be platforms for extremist propaganda.
Congressional testimony from Dr. Brandy Shufutinsky, a colleague of the articles author, highlighted one particularly disturbing case involving a QFI-funded Arabic teacher at a Chicago public high school. The teacher, Fadi Abughoush, is a member of the Chicago Arabic Teachers Council and has posted social media content glorifying Hamas and demonizing Israel and its supporters in grotesque terms.
Among his posts is one referring to slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a king, and another depicting former president Joe Biden watching Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu eat dead "kosher" childrenimagery steeped in antisemitic blood libel tropes. As of the time of reporting, Abughoushs Netanyahu post remained visible on his Instagram account, alongside selfies with other QFI-affiliated Arabic teachers and K-12 students, underscoring the proximity of his extremist views to the children he teaches.
Despite this record, QFI honored Abughoush with a teacher of excellence award in August, signaling either a shocking lack of due diligence or a tacit acceptance of his radical content. For parents, this raises a stark question: how many other QFI-linked educators across the country hold similarly extreme views that have not yet come to light?
Parents should not be forced to conduct their own digital investigations to discover which teachers and schools are partnering with an organization tied directly to the Qatari royal family. Nor should they have to guess whether foreign-funded programs are being used to smuggle in ideological agendas that undermine American values, parental authority, and support for key U.S. allies such as Israel.
Lawmakers have both the authority and the responsibility to demand transparency and to set clear boundaries on foreign influence in K-12 education. The TRACE ACT offers a straightforward starting point by requiring schools to disclose foreign donations and to provide parents with copies of any teaching materials or teacher training tools purchased with foreign funds.
Such a requirement would not ban foreign language or cultural programs, but it would ensure that parents know who is paying for them and what content is being introduced into their childrens classrooms. For a self-governing republic that values parental rights, national sovereignty, and the integrity of its education system, that level of openness should be the bare minimum.
Congress should move swiftly to pass the TRACE ACT and to consider additional safeguards where foreign entities with documented ties to terrorism, extremism, or anti-American propaganda are concerned. Only then can American families be confident that foreign actors are not quietly shaping what the next generation learns about their own country, its allies, and the values that have long underpinned our constitutional order.
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