Members of the Texas House reported that “adversary-controlled entities” have infiltrated our school districts. They have recommended state lawmakers act during the 2025 legislative session.
“Adversary-controlled entities have made inroads into the United States K-12 education system, creating risks through curriculum control, tutoring services, and data collection,” read an interim report from a Texas House committee. “The presence of companies connected to foreign adversaries within K-12 education introduces potential pathways for undue influence, data exploitation, and long-term ideological manipulation.”
Committee members split the threats to Texas school districts into three categories, starting with foreign-owned tutoring services.
Committee members named two well-known tutoring services—The Princeton Review and its affiliate, Tutor.com. Both are owned by the Hong Kong-based Primavera Capital Group.
“Primavera also holds investments in ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, raising concerns about the control influence such entities may wield over student data and educational materials,” committee members wrote.
TikTok has come under the microscope. Researchers at Rutgers University recently reported on how the Chinese Communist Party uses the application to shape perceptions. They found the application downplayed content critical of Red China, such as the CCP’s massacre of Chinese citizens protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
“Results strongly suggest that algorithmic amplification of pro- and anti-CCP content on Instagram and YouTube is largely determined by commercial consideration, whereas advancing CCP propaganda plays some role in the algorithmic curation of TikTok content,” the report read.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence has identified China, under the control of the Chinese Communist Party, as a hostile threat.
As noted in the House report, Florida felt compelled to act regarding The Princeton Review and Tutor.com. That state’s public servants opted to warn school districts not to use either service. “This initiative underscores the importance of prompt intervention to protect the education system from foreign influence.”
Committee members recommended their fellow state lawmakers go further, and that the Texas Legislature should send Gov. Greg Abbott a ban on contracts with adversary-controlled entities.
“States should explicitly prohibit contracts with foreign-controlled education services such as Tutor.com and Princeton Review,” wrote the members. “Additionally, they should extend this prohibition to any vendor with ties to nations identified as adversaries, ensuring no indirect channels remain open for influence.”
Representatives from Tutor.com and The Princeton Review replied to a request for comment.
“At Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, we employ extensive safeguards and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that U.S. students’ data will always be protected. As American companies with no physical presence, assets, employees, or business operations in China, we cannot be compelled to—and do not—release personal data of U.S. students and families to China or any foreign government,” they wrote in a statement.
“Furthermore, we uphold the highest standards of transparency and data security—and we comply with U.S. federal and state requirements regarding U.S. student data. We completed a comprehensive review by the U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), meant to protect national security, in which the Committee determined there are no unresolved national security concerns associated with our organization. We are also proud to have implemented—both in collaboration with CFIUS and separately—some of the most stringent data-protection practices in education services.”
Their full statement can be found at the end of this article.
The second category identified by committee members is cultural and educational exchanges.
Such exchanges were found to exist in multiple Texas government school districts and were reported on in 2023 and 2022. At the time, these were known as Confucius Institutes or Confucius Classrooms. Since then, the CCP has been engaged in rebranding these programs. They remain committed to infiltrating American K-12 schools.
“Adversary-controlled cultural exchanges and financial gifts to school systems may serve as avenues for infiltration,” wrote the committee. “Through these means, adversaries could embed narratives or collect data in ways that circumvent local oversight, influencing curricula and fostering dependency on external educational providers.”
Category three is data exploitation risk.
“The involvement of foreign adversaries in education, particularly those with connections to companies managing sensitive student data, creates vulnerabilities,” read the report. “Without strict oversight, student information may be harvested for purposes beyond educational use, raising privacy concerns and national security risks.”
The committee members’ second recommendation was to increase oversight and scrutiny.
“State education departments should implement stricter monitoring mechanisms for financial gifts, partnerships, and contracts with foreign entities,” wrote the committee members. “An auditing process, modeled on federal CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) reviews, could help mitigate risks.”
Texas Scorecard asked Primavera Capital and the Texas Education Agency for comment. They did not respond before publication.
The CCP threat to K-12 education was covered in the interim report from the Texas House Select Committee on Securing Texas from Hostile Organizations published in December 2024. The report covered multiple theaters in Texas under threat, and more will be explored in future articles.
Full Statement from representatives from Tutor.com and The Princeton Review
At Tutor.com and The Princeton Review, we employ extensive safeguards and enforcement mechanisms to ensure that U.S. students’ data will always be protected. As American companies with no physical presence, assets, employees, or business operations in China, we cannot be compelled to—and do not—release personal data of U.S. students and families to China or any foreign government.
Furthermore, we uphold the highest standards of transparency and data security—and we comply with U.S. federal and state requirements regarding U.S. student data. We completed a comprehensive review by the U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), meant to protect national security, in which the Committee determined there are no unresolved national security concerns associated with our organization. We are also proud to have implemented—both in collaboration with CFIUS and separately—some of the most stringent data-protection practices in education services. Active controls include the following:
- We have a binding legal commitment to the U.S. government that Primavera will not have access to any U.S. customer and student personal data or our IT systems.
- We have a designated security officer, vetted and approved by the U.S. government, who is a U.S. citizen and resident, to continuously monitor and ensure compliance with data-protection measures.
- Our board has two independent directors, vetted and approved by the U.S. government, who are U.S. citizens and residents as well as experts in matters of U.S. national security and data security, whose foremost duty is to ensure that U.S. customer and student personal data is safeguarded.
- Primavera is barred from accessing our physical locations except our New York City headquarters, and even then, only with pre-approval and close escort.
To reiterate: No personal information of U.S. students is shared with Primavera, and Primavera does not have—and may not obtain—access to our IT systems. (Even if, hypothetically, Primavera could be compelled to disclose personal data to the Chinese government, it does not have in its possession any such data to share.)
Our longstanding record of integrity continues to guide our work. We have a demonstrated performance history of improving student outcomes. Trust, quality, and student achievement are at the heart of everything we do, and we’re proud of the positive impact we’re making on students’ daily lives and futures.
