A comprehensive history of communism instruction will become a part of the state’s social studies academic standards.
Florida’s middle and high school students will learn about the history of communism as part of their basic curriculum beginning in the 2026–27 academic year.
The state board of education voted unanimously to approve the change to Florida’s social studies academic standards on Nov. 13, further advancing the push made by Florida lawmakers that began years ago.
“These standards provide students with a deeper understanding of how communist regimes have suppressed freedoms, how these regimes have abused power, and how they have inflicted suffering across the world,” Paul Burns, senior chancellor of the Florida Department of Education, told the board.
“We are adopting these standards today, so that we can then put these standards into courses which the board will be considering.
“Part of the reason we’re doing that is to make sure then that we can get great textbooks, or the word that we use is our aligned instructional materials can be adopted, and then everything will be in place for our students moving forward.”
The comprehensive instruction was listed alongside American History, as well as Holocaust Education, Civics and Government, World History, Financial Literacy, and Economics. Put forward after convening Florida educators and content experts, the new standards will teach children to recognize the difference between systems of economics and government in communist countries and those of America’s free-market capitalist constitutional republic.
One assignment listed among the new academic standards asks students to “analyze how Communism and Totalitarianism are antithetical to the American ideals of liberty, justice, and equality.” Students are tasked with comparing Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” to the U.S. Bill of Rights.
A focus will be placed on human rights, freedom of speech, and the results of communist centralized economic planning, including death tolls and labor camps.
The new standards also require an understanding of the origins of communism, colonial America’s early attempts at collectivism in Jamestown and the Plymouth Colony, and the reasons the colonists shifted away from it to private ownership, such as a lack of incentive to work and resulting mass starvation.
“Communism has destroyed nations, silenced faith, and robbed generations of their God-given freedoms,” Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas said in a statement ahead of the vote.
By T.J. Muscaro
