Qatar shaping anti-Israeli curricula for 8,000 American schools in all 50 states

Pro-Hamas, Iranian-aligned Gulf state using its petro dollars to shape the curriculum used by thousands of American K-12 schools in all 50 states, report warns.  

By World Israel News Staff

The Qatari government is using its funding of an American college where the curriculum for thousands of American K-12 schools is drafted to reshape the way school children in the U.S. are taught, injecting anti-Israel bias into primary and secondary school education, a recently published report warns.

Last week, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy (ISGAP) published a report documenting the Qatari government’s extensive foreign influence and anti-Israel bias infiltrating U.S. K-12 classrooms through Brown University’s Choices Program.

This curriculum, used by over 8,000 schools across all 50 states and reaching more than one million students, operates with undisclosed foreign funding and has been found to systematically distort historical facts to delegitimize Israel.

The report also raises significant concerns about transparency, oversight, and compliance with federal disclosure laws.

According to the ISGAP report, Qatari funding has led to a systematic manipulation of educational materials used by the Choices Program within the same units over the last decade, gradually shifting its curriculum to present an increasingly anti-Israel perspective.

Changes include the removal of key historical documents and the omission of others, the misrepresentation of Israel’s capital in maps, and the exclusion of balanced perspectives on Israeli history and diplomacy.

Furthermore, the report reveals that the Qatar Foundation International (QFI) has played an undisclosed role in shaping the Choices Program’s curriculum and teacher training.

The report also highlights a critical lack of transparency and oversight in schools utilizing the Choices Program. Schools are not informed when curriculum content is modified, and the proprietary nature of the digital curriculum prevents parents, school boards, and educators from reviewing and assessing changes. This raises serious ethical and legal concerns regarding accountability in education.

Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley from California, Chair of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education of the House Education & Workforce Committee, said that it appeared that “foreign influence from Qatar has infiltrated the Choices Program hosted at Brown University, a curriculum widely adopted in K-12 schools across the country.”

Kiley said he would work “with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to assure foreign influence does not promote antisemitism at American schools.”

The report also exposes the opaque legal and financial structure of the Choices Program, which operates under Brown University’s name while maintaining an ambiguous status that obscures compliance with federal disclosure laws.

The authors of the report said they found substantial evidence suggesting that Brown University may have failed to disclose foreign funding as required under the Higher Education Act. Additionally, the report raises concerns about the potential exposure of student and teacher data to third-party entities.

“This is a direct attempt to manipulate American students by embedding ideologically motivated.  foreign propaganda in their education,” Dr. Charles Asher Small, ISGAP’s executive director, said.

“Foreign entities with known ties to extremist ideologies should not be shaping how our children learn about history and the Middle East. The lack of transparency and oversight in this case is a threat to educational integrity and democratic values. American students should not be used as pawns in foreign propaganda campaigns. It is time to demand transparency, accountability, and an end to the silent manipulation of our children’s education.”