Georgia committee advances bill requiring disclosure of foreign donations to K–12 and technical colleges

A Georgia Senate committee voted to recommend passage of House Bill 1379, which would expand reporting of foreign donations to public K–12 schools, the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) and higher-education institutions.

Representative Gaines, the bill’s author, told the committee the measure builds on last year’s House Bill 150 by adding additional countries of concern and extending reporting to K–12 and TCSG, with a $10,000 reporting threshold. "What we're trying to do is just provide some transparency of any influence and curriculum that's trying to impact our young people across this state," he said.

The bill would require covered institutions to disclose donations from specified countries and submit information to the attorney general, the department of audits and committee chairs. The draft ties the list to federal designations as of 01/01/2026; Representative Gaines said the committee intentionally set that date so the state would apply a fixed list rather than automatically adopting future federal changes.

State Representative Esther Panich cited a report she said came from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, alleging significant donations linked to Qatar and other entities. She told the committee she received pushback from the Qatari ambassador on social media but said the ambassador did not contest the report's facts. Panich described classroom consequences she said resulted from some training programs, saying teachers returned from a program in Doha and "then put up maps that remove Israel from a modern map of the Middle East. Remove it. Gone." Her comments were offered as an argument for public disclosure rather than an outright prohibition.

Several senators questioned the bill’s scope and implementation. Senator O'Rourke asked whether the language targeting "monarchies" was overbroad; Senator Harrell noted the list has expanded to roughly 20 countries from about 10 last year. Senators also pressed who at the local level would be responsible for identifying and reporting foreign-linked grants or partnerships — school principals, superintendents or school boards — and whether the requirement would impose burdens on school staff. Representative Gaines and supporters described the measure as a reporting requirement, not a funding restriction; he said withholding state funds would be an enforcement tool only if an entity failed to disclose as required.

Lawmakers also debated whether the list should be broader — with some members arguing for disclosure of all foreign money — and whether narrowing to a specific set of countries made the bill more implementable. Representative Gaines said his original version included all countries but the current draft narrows the list to what staff and agencies represented as realistic and enforceable.

Committee members were shown examples the author said were found via open records requests; the author said those requests identified more than $250,000 in funds from listed countries flowing to Georgia institutions. The committee recorded a motion to "do pass" and, after a hand count, the chair reported four members in favor and three opposed. The committee recommendation will send the bill forward for further consideration.

The committee discussion emphasized disclosure mechanics and local administrative questions; the bill’s proponents say the change simply gives the public and oversight entities information about foreign-funded activities in Georgia schools, while some members worry about implementation details for local education officials. The committee did not take action to amend the bill on the floor of the hearing; next steps will follow the regular legislative process.