Florida middle and high school students will receive required instruction on the history and consequences of communist governments beginning in the 2026-27 school year under new standards adopted by the state Board of Education.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Florida public schools will begin teaching new state-required lessons on the history of communism during the 2026-27 academic year, with middle and high school students expected to study communist regimes and their connections to political repression, famine, poverty and violence.
The Florida Board of Education approved the new “History of Communism” standards last November, according to WEAR News.
Florida Department of Education officials said the curriculum standards were created by educators and subject-matter specialists in the state and are intended to provide students with a detailed examination of communist ideology and governments.
“With the adoption of the History of Communism Standards, Florida is leading the nation by equipping students with a truthful, in-depth understanding of how communist ideologies suppress individual freedoms, abuse power, and inflict widespread suffering,” FDOE said.
The new curriculum will require students to examine the historical record of communist governments, including examples involving political repression, economic hardship, famine and violence.
The initiative marks a renewed emphasis on communist history in Florida schools, but instruction on the subject is not entirely new to the state.
Escambia County School Board member Paul Fetsko recalled a previous Florida requirement that high school seniors take a dedicated course contrasting American political principles with communism.
“It was an Americanism versus communism course,” Fetsko said. “It was a semester course [14 years ago] that was required of all seniors.”
Fetsko said curriculum requirements have evolved as education standards have been revised and additional subjects have competed for classroom time.
“As the standards and benchmarks have changed, things get assumed into other courses or they are taken away because something else becomes a more pressing topic,” he added.
Under the newly approved standards, communist history will again receive specific attention rather than being addressed only as one component of broader history or civics instruction.
The policy comes amid a larger national debate over how political and economic systems are taught in American schools and universities.
Critics of socialism and communism have argued that younger Americans are often insufficiently taught about the historical consequences of communist governments. Those concerns have intensified as politicians including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have helped bring democratic socialist ideas into mainstream political debate among younger voters.
Florida officials have framed the new standards as an effort to ensure students receive direct historical instruction about governments established under communist systems and the effects those systems had on individual rights and societies.
The requirements will include study of how communist regimes have been associated with restrictions on individual freedom and political opposition, as well as economic deprivation and episodes of mass violence.
Fetsko’s comments indicate that the state’s decision also revives an approach that once occupied a more prominent place in Florida’s secondary-school curriculum before later standards incorporated or displaced it.
Fox News also reported on the new Florida curriculum as implementation approaches.
A video discussing the policy was circulated on X highlighting Florida’s decision to require the instruction.
When the 2026-27 school year begins, the standards will place the history of communism directly into required instruction for middle and high school students, with Florida education officials saying the goal is to give students a fuller understanding of how communist governments have operated and affected the populations under their control.
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