Qatar covers its tracks: Gulf state spent millions to infiltrate American classrooms

Excerpt

Qatar Foundation International has poured millions of dollars into U.S. K-12 public schools over the past 17 years.

Qatari officials have long claimed that QFI has a “narrow philanthropic mission: to provide grants to schools and teachers engaged in Arabic language instruction.” However, our research over the past seven months reveals that it has been paying for items such as public school teacher salaries and the development of highly politicized curricula in major school districts across the country.

Then, on Monday, the foundation — which is overseen by the ruling Qatari family — announced that it had “concluded its operations” and is now winding down. Why?

Simone Weichselbaum and Naomi Friedman are research fellows with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ education and national security program.