Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday that says the history of communism has to be taught in elementary school. The 63rd anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed US-backed attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro’s regime in Cuba, falls on the same day as the signing.
This is what DeSantis said at a press meeting at the Hialeah Gardens Museum: “We know that the Bay of Pigs was launched because the island of Cuba had given in to communist tyranny.” The museum honors the work of the 2506th Assault Brigade in the Bay of Pigs.
“We are going to be honest about communism in Florida.” He also said, “We’re going to tell the truth about how bad communism is.”
The bill says that the Florida Department of Education should “prepare and offer” recommendations for how to teach the history of communism in a way that is “age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate” for all grade levels. Some ideas in the curriculum really bring out the economic problems and limits on personal freedom that are typical in many Communist countries.
In the 20th century, communism became a bigger danger to the US and its allies. This is one of the required topics that must be taught beginning in the 2026–27 school year. As well as “the economic, industrial and political events that have preceded and anticipated communist revolutions.”
The bill, according to DeSantis’ website, “adds to existing Communist history standards with instruction on the history of Communism in the United States and the tactics of Communist movements.” The new Institute for Freedom in the Americas at Miami Dade College is also given permission to support the importance of economic and personal freedoms as a way to improve human progress, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean.
It has been said that the center will work with Florida International University’s Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom.
The website also says that the bill “allows the Florida Department of State, working with the Florida Department of Education, to recommend to the Legislature the creation of a Florida-based museum on the history of Communism” and “equips students to resist indoctrination on Communism at colleges and universities.”
Right now, Florida kids can learn about communism in high school social studies classes or in a seventh-grade civics and government class. The high school graduation requirement is a government class that includes 45 minutes of lessons on “Victims of Communism Day” that talk about communist countries throughout history.
Both Republicans and Democrats voted for the bill; only seven Democrats in the Florida House and Senate voted against it.
