GOP Lawmakers Seek to Add ‘Dangers of Communism’ Program to High School Curriculum

‘Communism is a cancer, and it always produces the same results: oppression, suffering and death,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.)

Riot police detain a man as they clear protesters taking part in a rally against a new national security law in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020, on the 23rd anniversary of the city's handover from Britain to China. Dale De La Rey/AFP via Getty Images

Republican lawmakers have reintroduced a piece of legislation that would create a civic education program that directly addresses the history of communism.

Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) unveiled the bill on March 12, saying that the proposed measures were designed to inform high school students about the “dangers of communism” and similar ideologies.

“Communism is a cancer, and it always produces the same results: oppression, suffering and death,” Kennedy said in a statement accompanying the bill.

Titled the Crucial Communism Teaching Act, the legislation states its purpose is to ensure younger generations are aware of the fact that communism has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 million people worldwide, and that more than 1.5 billion people current live under communist regimes.

Lawmakers cited a 2020 poll commissioned by the nonprofit Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, which shows young Americans more likely to have favorable attitudes toward socialism and communism.

Approximately 35 percent of U.S. millennials (ages 23 to 38) and 31 percent of Generation Z (ages 16 to 23) expressed support for “gradual elimination of the capitalist system in favor of a more socialist system.”

Among the five age groups surveyed, Generation Z and millennials showed the highest levels of favorability toward communism, at 28 percent and 22 percent, respectively.

“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 educating young people about the dangers of communism and its long dark history of oppression, persecution, and violence,” Schmitt said in a statement.

Under the proposed legislation, a high school education curriculum would be developed by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, an organization established by a unanimous vote of Congress in 1993.

The bill states that the new educational program would feature a comparative discussion about “certain political ideologies, including communism and totalitarianism,” and how these ideologies “conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy that are essential to the founding of the United States.”

It also seeks to introduce oral history resources called “Portraits in Patriotism.” These will showcase personal stories of survivors from communist regimes, allowing students to compare between those experiences and their own lives in the United States.

Scott said by providing schools with these resources, it would help “to preserve the freedoms and principles that define our nation.”

‘Deadliest Ideology’

A companion bill was reintroduced in the House by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and 13 other lawmakers on March 13.

Salazar, whose family fled Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba, has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill in support of the legislation since 2021, when she first introduced it. The earlier version failed to move to a floor vote at that time.

Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) speaks on the Hill Advocacy Day in Washington on May 1, 2024. Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

In December 2024, however, the House passed the legislation proposed by Salazar and 33 other lawmakers. Named the Crucial Communism Teaching Act, the legislation aims to prepare families, education agencies, and state agencies to ensure Americans understand the history of communism, securing bipartisan backing with a final vote count of 327–62.

The latest House version by Salazar includes specific provisions requiring the educational materials to outline the abuses by the Chinese communist regime, including the ongoing repression of Uyghur Muslims in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, the suppression of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, and its increasingly aggressive posture toward the self-ruled Taiwan.

“Communism is the DEADLIEST ideology known to man,” Salazar said in a statement on social media platform X. “Let’s make sure our kids know the truth about this horrible and deplorable ideology.”