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Legislation seeks to educate students on history and global impact of communism through civic education program.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Republican lawmakers have reintroduced legislation aimed at educating American high school students about the dangers and history of communism, highlighting what they describe as a failure of the current education system to address the ideology’s global toll. The bill, titled the Crucial Communism Teaching Act, was unveiled March 12 by Senators John Kennedy (R-La.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), who emphasized the need to confront rising positive sentiment toward communism among younger Americans.
“Communism is a cancer, and it always produces the same results: oppression, suffering and death,” Kennedy said in a statement accompanying the proposed legislation.
The bill proposes a civic education program to inform students about the deaths of more than 100 million people globally under communist regimes, with over 1.5 billion people currently living under communist rule, according to the text of the legislation. The curriculum would be developed by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an organization established by Congress in 1993.
The proposal also includes “Portraits in Patriotism” — a series of oral histories from survivors of communist regimes — designed to allow students to compare their own freedoms with those of individuals who lived under communist oppression.
Citing a 2020 poll conducted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, lawmakers noted a trend of increasing favorability toward socialism and communism among millennials and Generation Z, with 28 percent of Gen Z and 22 percent of millennials expressing favorable views of communism.
“At a time when nearly one-third of Gen Z hold a ‘favorable opinion’ of communism, it is clear our education system has fallen short,” Schmitt stated.
The bill also mandates a comparative analysis of communism, totalitarianism, and other ideologies in relation to the founding principles of freedom and democracy in the United States.
Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and 13 House members have introduced a companion bill, building upon a previous version passed by the House in December 2024 with a bipartisan vote of 327–62. That version included materials detailing abuses by the Chinese Communist Party, such as the repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, suppression of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and aggression toward Taiwan.
“Communism is the DEADLIEST ideology known to man,” Salazar said in a statement on social media. “Let’s make sure our kids know the truth about this horrible and deplorable ideology.”