Crucial Communism Teaching Act
Proposed U.S. bill
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Critics of the bill said that it oversimplified the history of communism and overlooked the history of anti-communism in the United States.
Background
Public opinion polls during the late 2010s and early 2020s found increasing support for communism in Americans, particularly among younger generations. Some conservatives attributed this uptick to insufficient education about communist regimes, while some on the left attribute it to dissatisfaction with government and economic conditions.
In 2021, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill promoting the teaching of anti-communist lessons in Florida schools, and in February 2024 signed a bill requiring the teaching of the "atrocities" and "increasing threat[s]" of communism in Florida public schools from kindergarten to 12th grade. Similar bills were also introduced in Arizona and the United States Congress. The framework of the Crucial Communism Teaching Act was modeled after that of the Never Again Education Act, which allows for the creation of educational resources regarding the Holocaust.
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Provisions
The bill would ask that the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation create educational resources to promote the teaching of some of the impacts of communism throughout recent history. It would aim to ensure that high school students learn that, among other things, "communism has led to the deaths of over 100 million victims worldwide", and that "1.5 billion people still suffer under communism." It would additionally ask that students learn of the actions of regimes such as that of the People's Republic of China against the Uyghurs, and antidemocratic efforts in places such as Hong Kong.
Controversy
Representative Bobby Scott (D–VA) said of the bill that, while there was value in teaching about totalitarian regimes, the manner in which the bill would do that was not comprehensive and could lead to greater politicization in education. Others saw the bill as being intended to spread anti-communist ideology, reminiscent of the era of McCarthyism.
Legislative history
As of August 2, 2025: