New Act Mandates Specific Anti-Communism Curriculum in High Schools, Citing 100 Million Deaths

The newly proposed Crucial Communism Teaching Act is designed to overhaul how high schoolers learn about political systems, specifically focusing on communism and totalitarianism. The core of the bill is simple: every high school student in the U.S. must be taught that communism has caused the deaths of over 100 million people globally and that 1.5 billion people currently live under communist rule (SEC. 2).

This isn't just about adding a chapter to a history book. The bill hands the task of developing a mandatory civic education curriculum to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. This curriculum must constantly be updated to compare these oppressive systems against U.S. democratic principles. For parents and teachers, this means a new, mandated set of lessons is coming, developed by a non-governmental organization, which could affect how history, government, and economics are taught across the board.

Who Writes the History Now?

One of the most significant changes here is who gets to write the material. Instead of relying on state education boards or academic experts within the public school system, the bill assigns the curriculum development role to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (SEC. 3). This curriculum is required to focus heavily on ongoing human rights violations, specifically calling out how the People’s Republic of China treats Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), and China’s aggression toward Taiwan and Hong Kong.

For teachers and school districts, this means less control over content. If you’re a high school history teacher, you’ll have a new, external curriculum dropped on your desk, and you’ll be required to teach it. While the goal is to ensure students understand the real-world dangers of these regimes, the concern for academics is whether a curriculum developed by a foundation with a specific ideological focus will be balanced and academically rigorous, or if it will lean toward one particular political narrative.

Portraits in Patriotism: The Personal Stories

The bill also mandates the creation of supplementary educational materials called “Portraits in Patriotism.” These are oral history resources featuring personal stories from victims of these political systems. These individuals must be able to “clearly contrast those oppressive political systems with the ideology of the United States” (SEC. 3).

This is where the bill aims to make the history relatable and impactful, using personal narratives to underscore the difference between democracy and totalitarianism. For students, hearing these firsthand accounts could be a powerful way to learn about human rights and civic responsibility. However, the requirement that these stories must “clearly contrast” systems with U.S. ideology suggests a very specific framing is required, which could limit the nuance and complexity often needed when discussing global political history. The overall impact is a highly directed, mandatory civic education program focused on a specific narrative of political history and current events.