Truthout is a vital news source and a living history of political struggle. If you think our work is valuable, support us with a donation of any size.

First, there was democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders. Then, in 2018, socialists Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) and Rashida Tlaib won seats in the House of Representatives. Seven years later, in the fall of 2025, voters chose socialists Zohran Mamdani and Katie Wilson to lead New York City and Seattle, upping socialist representation in government to 250 people in 40 states.

These victories reflect the growing influence of socialist ideas and organizations across the U.S., driven in large part by youth. Unsurprisingly, the right wing has taken notice of this growing public appeal and has made it clear that it intends to stop the ascent of socialism — and communism — in their tracks. Their launching pad? Public education in Florida.

Beginning in the fall of 2026, all Florida middle and high school students will be required to take a yearly social studies class on the history of communism. The curriculum has already received the stamp of approval from the conservative Heritage Foundation (the group behind Project 2025), a right-wing nonprofit organization called the National Association of Scholars (NAS) and a NAS spinoff called the Civics Alliance, and it follows on the heels of the state’s 2022 imposition of Victims of Communism Day, which is now held every November 7 to mark the start of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The annual commemoration requires schools to provide a minimum of 45 minutes of instruction on “the horrors of communism” and the “destructiveness of Marxism-Leninism.” Programming is also expected to inculcate “an appreciation for the founding principles of the American republic.” What these principles are is not specified.

The new curriculum builds on this one-day event and also expands the Sunshine State’s commitment to “The Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education,” which was developed by the Heritage Foundation and released in February 2025. According to Florida’s Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas, the state’s official approval of the Declaration — which was announced at a press conference — reflects the state’s “affiliation with the Heritage Foundation” and restricts topics the state has long viewed as pedagogically problematic, including instruction that covers sexual orientation, gender identity, racial inequality, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Instead, the Declaration pledges curricula that foster “a love of country” and purportedly teach children to “seek the good, true and beautiful.” To date, Florida is the sole state to have signed on to the Declaration. Kamoutsas and state education officials are arguing that the new History of Communism Standards will uphold the Declaration’s principles and bolster student support for capitalism and free enterprise.

Their rationale is explicit:

Florida Has Deemed All Existing Intro to Sociology Textbooks Illegal

Young Americans [sic] avowed fondness for socialism and communism is the corollary of never having been taught about the poverty, cruelty, and mass murder that are characteristic accompaniments of communism in practice. It is difficult to believe that Zohran Mamdani (for example) would have received such enthusiastic support if New York students had been taught about the lamentable catalog of atrocities committed in the name of communism by Lenin and Stalin, by Mao and Pol Pot, by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Young Americans [sic] avowed fondness for socialism and communism is the corollary of never having been taught about the poverty, cruelty, and mass murder that are characteristic accompaniments of communism in practice. It is difficult to believe that Zohran Mamdani (for example) would have received such enthusiastic support if New York students had been taught about the lamentable catalog of atrocities committed in the name of communism by Lenin and Stalin, by Mao and Pol Pot, by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Moreover, a state DOE press release sings the History of Communism Standards’ praises, saying: “Florida is leading the nation by equipping students with a truthful, in-depth understanding of how communist ideologies suppress individual freedoms, abuse power, and inflict widespread suffering.”

To hammer the idea, the curriculum outlines a range of topics to be covered: how communist espionage undermined U.S. national security and continues to pose a threat to the U.S. and its allies; how communists infiltrated the civil right movement; and how communist indoctrination works, among them. The curriculum presents Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee as “champions of anti-communism”; it denounces collectives; and it extolls the value of private property and the acquisition of individual wealth. Cuba comes in for a particular drubbing: it is described in the curriculum as a key “exporter of revolutionary internationalism,” which, of course, is depicted in negative terms.

“Teachers Already Feel Handcuffed”

Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, is critical of the anticommunist curriculum. Nonetheless, he told Truthout:

Florida’s code of ethics requires educators to teach the state standards. That’s the challenge. Teachers already feel handcuffed. If they want to use their own resources or add a supplemental reading or film, these materials must first be approved by the district. We know that public students need and deserve more than math and reading instruction. They need the honest teaching of history. A democratic society demands that students learn how to think, not what to think. Debate and discussion drive ingenuity and the development of problem solving skills. But that’s not what is being promoted.

Florida’s code of ethics requires educators to teach the state standards. That’s the challenge. Teachers already feel handcuffed. If they want to use their own resources or add a supplemental reading or film, these materials must first be approved by the district. We know that public students need and deserve more than math and reading instruction. They need the honest teaching of history. A democratic society demands that students learn how to think, not what to think. Debate and discussion drive ingenuity and the development of problem solving skills. But that’s not what is being promoted.

Indeed, Spar reports that teachers are feeling increasingly anxious about what can and cannot be taught. “The state needs to let teachers teach,” he said. “It’s concerning that the right wing says that it wants to take politics out of education, but this requirement does the exact opposite.”

Spar is far from alone in his critique. Still, despite union and community opposition to the Standards, teachers and administrators expect the curriculum to be rolled out at the start of the 2026-2027 school year.

Opponents, however, hope that negative assessments of the curriculum will deter other states from latching onto the model.

Timothy Snyder, a scholar who has written extensively about authoritarian regimes, used his Substack to denounce the curriculum for its over-simplification of the U.S. as the “best country in the world … The U.S. is to be defined as free and democratic, regardless of what Americans or their legislators actually do,” he wrote. What’s more, he concludes that the curriculum derails meaningful examination of the country’s history and limits thought about the best ways to preserve and expand equity, fairness, and liberty.

Like Snyder, historian Ellen Schrecker is an expert on right-wing repression (and especially McCarthyism) and told Truthout that the many false claims in Florida’s new curriculum need to be addressed:

They are pulling up random facts about a communist attack on so-called American values. What students will be taught is a view of a communist threat that did not, and does not, exist. The presentation of an out-of-control left — socialist and communist — that has continually tried to undermine American security is false. We also have to look at what is missing from the curriculum. For one thing, its coverage of McCarthy does not mention that people lost their jobs, really suffered, because of his attacks.

They are pulling up random facts about a communist attack on so-called American values. What students will be taught is a view of a communist threat that did not, and does not, exist. The presentation of an out-of-control left — socialist and communist — that has continually tried to undermine American security is false. We also have to look at what is missing from the curriculum. For one thing, its coverage of McCarthy does not mention that people lost their jobs, really suffered, because of his attacks.

Like Snyder, Schrecker sees the portrayal of the U.S. as a world beacon as problematic. “The curriculum presents the U.S. with its great, white, male, Christian leaders, as perfect in most ways, but cautions that the country can be threatened by external socialist or communist forces,” she explained. “There is no mention of people who have been oppressed in the U.S. or even given limited opportunities. There is also a vague ‘us versus them’ positioning, with a focus on individual over collective responses.”

John White, a professor of English and Adolescent Literacy at the University of North Florida, is also troubled by the fallacies put forward in the History of Communism Standards.

“The right wing says that teachers should not indoctrinate students, but they have put forward a curriculum that indoctrinates students with a particular viewpoint,” he said. “The curriculum conflates communism and socialism as if they are one ideology.” White also agreed with Schrecker: “The curriculum ignores the fact that Joseph McCarthy was the epitome of a blowhard who has been widely discredited. Worse, the term ‘communism’ seems to be a catch phrase for any ideas that the right does not like.”

White said many of his students want to become social studies teachers because they love history and politics. “They don’t want to look at the world as a binary between good and evil or put opposing racism, sexism, and homophobia in the evil category and blind patriotism in the good category,” he continued. “Students do not need to be spoon-fed. This curriculum is the antithesis of good teaching because it undermines critical thinking.”

But these objections do not bother Florida’s Department of Education or the DeSantis administration. Indeed, they see the History of Communism Standards as a continuation of a required class called Americanism vs. Communism that was taught to the state’s middle and high school students between 1962 and 1983. The course mandate was instituted following the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961 and was explicit in its intent to teach Florida kids about “the dangers of communism, the ways to fight communism, the evils of communism, the fallacies of communism and the false doctrines of communism.”

Linda Camarasana, a retired professor of English at the State University of New York at Old Westbury, took the class in 1976 while in high school in North Miami Beach. “We knew that the goal was to teach us about the evils of communism and stress that the U.S. was superior,” Camarasana told Truthout. “But at the time, the population of North Miami was very liberal and so were our teachers. We learned about the conditions that led to the Russian revolution and that caused people to rise up.” And despite knowing that the class was meant to present communism as horrible, she says that she got a balanced viewpoint that prompted independent study and research.

Both DeSantis and Kamoutsas are hell-bent on making sure that the current History of Communism Standards do not offer students or their teachers this kind of wiggle room to debate systems of governance. As Kamoutsas said in a 2025 press conference, stopping “the resurgence of communist ideologies across the United States and throughout the world,” is a Florida educational priority. He has asserted that he and the state DOE are confident the curriculum will soon be adopted by other states.

Holding Trump accountable for his illegal war on Iran

The devastating American and Israeli attacks have killed hundreds of Iranians, and the death toll continues to rise.

As independent media, what we do next matters a lot. It’s up to us to report the truth, demand accountability, and reckon with the consequences of U.S. militarism at this cataclysmic historical moment.

Trump may be an authoritarian, but he is not entirely invulnerable, nor are the elected officials who have given him pass after pass. We cannot let him believe for a second longer that he can get away with something this wildly illegal or recklessly dangerous without accountability.

We ask for your support as we carry out our media resistance to unchecked militarism. Please make a tax-deductible one-time or monthly donation to Truthout.

Share via Facebook Facebook Circle Icon

Share via Bluesky Bluesky Circle Icon.cls-1{stroke-width:0px;}

Share via Flipboard Flipboard Circle Icon

Share via Mail Mail Circle Icon

More .st0{fill:none;stroke:#000000;stroke-width:0.5;stroke-linecap:round;stroke-linejoin:round;} Share via Threads .cls-1{stroke-width:0px;} Share via Reddit Reddit Cirlce Icon Share via Pocket Pocket Circle Icon Share via Linkedin LinkedIn Circle Icon.cls-1{stroke:#000;stroke-miterlimit:10;} Share via Twitter Twitter Circle Icon

Share via Threads .cls-1{stroke-width:0px;}

Share via Reddit Reddit Cirlce Icon

Share via Pocket Pocket Circle Icon

Share via Linkedin LinkedIn Circle Icon.cls-1{stroke:#000;stroke-miterlimit:10;}

Share via Twitter Twitter Circle Icon

Republish This Article for Free

Republishing Guidelines

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the following terms:

Required: Required: You must credit Truthout and retain our links, as follows: "This article was originally published by Truthout."

Required: You must preserve the article exactly as it appears on our site. You cannot edit, shorten or otherwise alter the content.

Required: You must clearly credit the author(s) and retain their byline.

Prohibited: You cannot republish our photographs or illustrations without specific permission.

Prohibited: You cannot use this work for commercial purposes.

Eleanor J. Bader is a Brooklyn, New York-based freelance writer who focuses on domestic social issues and resistance movements. In addition to Truthout, she writes for The Progressive, Ms. Magazine, Lilith, The Indypendent, New Pages and other progressive blogs and print publications.  

© Truthout