Evan Glazer, president and CEO of the Illinois Math and Sciences Academy (IMSA) in Aurora, Illinois, is trying to collaborate again with the People’s Republic of China as he did when he ran Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST or TJ) in Fairfax County, Virginia.
The story of Glazer and his communist comrades is a knotty tangle of details that Parents Defending Education has been exposing for over a decade, starting in 2014, with little response from Americans or their leaders.
Multiple news outlets including National Review, Washington Examiner, Fox News, and Daily Wire have tried to amplify the story, but little seems to come of it, perhaps because the cast of characters—a convoluted mess of dubious people and organizations that would make Joe’s and Hunter’s eyes light up with admiration—makes following the tangled story challenging.
The abbreviated story is that when Illinois native Evan Glazer was principal of Virginia’s premier STEM magnet school and overseeing a wildly expensive renovation project, the school received $3.6 million between 2014-2021 funneled through the Thomas Jefferson Partnership Fund (TJPF), which the school claims is a “separate and independent 501(c)(3)” fundraising entity, which is not overseen by FCPS [Fairfax County Public Schools].”
You be the judge of its separateness and independence. According to National Review, TJPF,
had access to a host of taxpayer-funded tools: including operational services, HR resources, official “fcps.edu” email addresses, a business phone linked to the school district, office space on TJ’s campus, and office resources. TJPF also utilized free labor from FCPS teachers and administrators who spent time hosting Chinese officials on school visits. … TJPF also officially watermarked for authenticity documents from TJ, to distribute to Chinese partners, according to public records.
The millions of Chinese dollars that TJPF scarfed up came from the Ameson Education and Cultural Exchange Foundation, Tsinghua University, and Shirble Department Store Holding Company, all of which have ties to the Chinese Communist Party in diverse ways.
And what exactly did the Chinese Communist Party-linked organizations want from TJHSST? They wanted “in-depth photos of the research lab set ups” and “blueprints, floor plans, curricula … and thumb drives with Senior Student Research projects,” an “overview of TJ organization, operation and management, admin framework, division leadership,” an “overview of teacher evaluation,” and an “overview of TJ admissions.”
Those pesky Chinese Communists used all the information they bought from Glazer et al. to construct the Thomas Schools in China.
Now that Illinois’ very own Tim Walz is at the helm of IMSA, it appears Glazer is once again poised to collaborate with America’s enemies in their effort to make China even more formidable. The Chinese Thomas schools have proposed a three-week residential program focused on math, physics, and life sciences—no gender theory for the Chinese—to take place in July, 2025. In a Sept. 10, 2024 email to Glazer, a staff member said the quiet part out loud:
The question, I suppose, is whether IMSA’s primary goal is to get The Thomas Schools’ students through the doors and generate some dollars – or to create a true research exchange program.
Here’s an idea: don’t fraternize with the enemy, and don’t provide to the enemy anything of value.
Combine the intellectual property China steals with the intellectual property some Americans sell it, and watch the Chinese Communist behemoth grow.
As for Glazer, for all his hard work on behalf of our enemies, we will be paying Glazer handsomely for years to come. He is now paid about $317,000 per year. I’m not strong enough in math to calculate what taxpayers will be paying him over the course of his life between his salary and pension, but I know this: it’s definitely too much.