Starting from the 2026-2027 school year, schools in Florida, USA will begin teaching a course on exposing the terror history of communism. The new standards for this course were approved by the Florida Department of Education in November last year.
The Florida Department of Education stated that these standards were developed collaboratively by Florida educators and content experts. When discussing the significance of this course, the department said it will enable students to “truly and deeply understand how the ideology of communism suppresses individual freedoms, abuses power, and causes widespread suffering.”
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas had previously stated in November that with the resurgence of communist ideology in the US and worldwide, it has become unprecedentedly important for students to understand the failures of communist regimes and the suffering they have inflicted on humanity. The new standards for the communist history course in Florida will ensure that students understand the harsh realities of living under communist rule and gain a deeper appreciation for the values of freedom advocated by the United States.
WEAR News contacted the Escambia County public schools on Wednesday, July 29th to inquire about the new curriculum. The school district stated in a release that “these standards have been incorporated into various course descriptions in K-12 social studies. The majority of these standards are set up within two elective courses offered at the high school level.”
Paul Fetsko, a member of the Escambia County School Board, mentioned that this is not Florida’s first time requiring students to learn communist history. “It used to be a course that compared Americanism with communism,” Fetsko stated. “It was a semester-long course (14 years ago) that all senior students had to take.”
The new standards in Florida require middle and high school students to study the history of communist regimes, including the connections between communist regimes and poverty, famine, political oppression, and violence.
Fetsko believes that this initiative in Florida aims to provide young people with objective facts to help them understand the differences between various ideologies and the true impact of such ideologies.
The Florida Department of Education stated that Governor Ron DeSantis is aware that Florida residents, especially students, need to understand the dangers of communism and remember the one billion people who perished under communist rule. In 2022, he signed House Bill No. 395, officially establishing “Communism Victims Remembrance Day.” The bill requires schools to allocate at least 45 minutes of teaching on this day, to discuss how communist regimes operate and the suffering endured by victims under such governance, such as poverty, hunger, population displacement, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech and religion. In 2024, Governor DeSantis further deepened this commitment by signing Senate Bill No. 1264, expanding the scope of education on “Communism Victims Remembrance Day” to cover a comprehensive explanation of communist history and its global impacts.