In a news release sent Monday, WKU announced that the University has ended its agreement with the Confucius Institute Headquarters.
The decision could affect two Chinese teachers at Daviess County Public Schools that are currently teaching at Apollo High School and Burns Middle School as a part of this collaboration.
According to Daviess County Public Schools Director of Secondary Schools Charles Broughton, DCPS is unsure of the future of those two teachers and Chinese being offered as a language option for students.
“They are wanting to continue some form of that program and offer it to districts that are currently utilizing partnerships with the Confucius Institute,” Broughton said.
Last year, WKU provided Chinese language and culture instruction to 47 K-12 schools in more than 20 school districts in Kentucky using teachers recruited from China, according to Monday’s news release.
“Do all roads appear to be leading to and ending? Yes, they do. But is it a definite? I think there are going to be some options for us,” Broughton said.
WKU’s Interim Director of the Confucius Institute Terrill Martin told DCPS in a letter that they are working toward a solution that allows WKU to continue its programming in some capacity for the foreseeable future, just not under the Confucius Institute name.
But that option, Broughton worries, may come with a higher cost to DCPS. Currently, DCPS pays their two Chinese teachers less than $20,000 for the year. The remainder of their salaries are paid through WKU’s program. Broughton said should a new program be made available, the district will have to determine its affordability.
The two Chinese teachers serve 80 – 100 students each at their respective schools. Chinese is the only other language offered at Apollo and Burns Middle beyond Spanish. Broughton said should those Chinese teachers not be available in the future, the two schools would need to factor that into future language education hires.
According to Owensboro Public Schools Public Information Officer Jared Revelett, OPS did have a couple of teachers from China as part of WKU’s program for a short time, but the district has not been involved with the Confucius Institute for the past three years.
According to WKU’s release, the decision to close the Confucius Institute, which has operated at WKU since 2010, came when the university could not secure a waiver from the Department of Defense (DOD) that would allow WKU to operate both the Confucius Institute and its Chinese Flagship Program. Defense spending legislation passed in 2018 prohibits institutions from hosting Confucius Institutes if they receive DOD funding for Chinese language programs, the release said.
“Though activities will phase out over the next several weeks, we will continue our dialogue with key partners to work toward a solution that allows WKU to continue our programming,” WKU President Timothy C. Caboni said. “We hope to strengthen, deepen and broaden our relationships with partner institutions in China throughout this process.”
Martin told DCPS a finalized plan for next year will be made by May 15.
