Virginia Senate Rejects Bill on Teaching the Dangers of Communism in Schools

A young Cambodian woman looks at the main stupa in Choeung Ek Killing Fields, which is filled with thousands of skulls of those killed during the Pol Pot regime in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on Aug. 6, 2014. Omar Havana/Getty Images

Legislation requiring all Virginia public schools to teach the history and dangers of communism was blocked by the state Senate’s Education and Health subcommittee after one of the largest school unions opposed the bill, saying it would discriminate against Asian people.

A representative from the Virginia Education Association (VEA) spoke in opposition to Del. John Avoli’s bill, HB 1816.

“Four out of the five current communist regimes are countries that are in Asia. We are concerned that this bill would subject Asian American students to anti-Asian sentiment and we think that we would oppose this bill,” said Emily Yen, a research coordinator for VEA.

Avoli’s bill would have required the state Board of Education to include the dangers of communism in the state’s history and social science teaching standards.

“What this does, it puts it in the code. ... I think it needs to be a continuous process so it doesn’t go away from us,” said Avoli.

Avoli said it’s important to codify the requirements that students learn about the dangers of communism so that history does not repeat itself.

However, Democrat state Sen. Mamie E. Locke said the law is not necessary because students in Virginia public schools already learn about the communist regimes of the 20th century through the world history standards of learning.

“I don’t think that something like this needs to be in the code,” she said.

History of Some Communist Regimes

In Virginia’s standards of learning for history and social science, communism is taught in two sections: the rise of totalitarianism and the conflicts and revolutionary movements in Asia and their major leaders, including Mao Zedong, Chiang Kai-shek, and Deng Xiaoping in China and Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.

Avoli clarified that the bill would require the teaching of communism in its entirety with no special focus on Asia.

The bill would also have required the governor to issue a proclamation to designate Nov. 7 as Victims of Communism Day and require public schools in the Commonwealth to honor the approximately 100 million victims of various communist regimes.

Supporters of the bill say this measure is particularly needed because of the rise of socialist and Marxist ideologies in the education system, resulting in the fact that many young adults see communism as a superior system to capitalism, not realizing the true toll communism has taken on human life.

Youngkin issued such a proclamation in 2022, but Avoli’s bill would have codified the order.

While the Virginia House of Delegates passed the bill in a bipartisan vote of 64 to 34, Democrats in the state Senate prevented the bill from moving out of committee.