According to a new bombshell report from members of the Texas House, China has a found a way to infiltrate K-12 schools across the state.

How are they doing it? With Hong Kong based ownership of two well known tutoring services.

"The Princeton Review, and it's affiliate Tutor.com" said Robert Montoya, investigative reporter at Texas Scorecard, "Both are owned by the Hong Kong based Primavera Capital Group. They hold investments in ByteDance which is the parent company of Tik Tok."

But with the tutoring, comes direct access to students, and a Texas education.

"It introduces potential pathways for undue influence, data exploitation, and long term ideological manipulation" Montoya told KTRH.

So now that we know what China is doing, what will be done here in Texas during this current legislative session?

"Lawmakers have suggested that Governor Abbott issue a ban on using foreign owned tutoring services because they have such connections to China" noted Montoya.

It's now up to Texas lawmakers to make the next move.

In response to this report, Tutor.com and The Princeton Review released the following statement:

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.

Jimmy Barrett