Socialism is gaining ground, particularly among younger adults. It is sometimes modified with the word “democratic,” as in the name Democratic Socialists of America, but the modification is lipstick on a pig. Socialism and communism spring from the same desire to elevate government over family. That makes it important for students to understand where the militant ideology has led in practice. A new public school curriculum in Florida offers a model for doing that.
Public school students in Florida will take a course this year that was approved in November 2025 by the state Board of Education: History of Communism Standards.
“With the resurgence of communist ideologies across the United States and throughout the world, it is more important than ever for students to understand the catastrophic failures and human suffering caused by communist regimes,” Florida Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas said.
Winston Churchill famously said that communism “is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy,” an ideology whose sole virtue “is the equal sharing of misery.”
He predicted that communism, for all its pretensions to deliver a more equitable future, would prove ruinous. He was right, although that did not stop a generation of Western leftists and “fellow travelers” from whitewashing communism’s evils and advocating its superiority over capitalism.
It would be hard to overstate the mass suffering perpetrated by radical egalitarian ideology. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin allegedly said that while “the death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is [but] a statistic.” Statistics offer a grim look at communism’s true cost.
Communism murdered no fewer than 100 million people, according to a reasonable 1997 estimate. That far exceeds the 70 million military personnel and civilians who perished in World War II, the deadliest war in history. Nor does it include millions more who have suffered or perished in the three decades since the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.
Frank Dikotter, a historian of modern China, estimated that the Chinese Communist Party alone killed 45 million or more people over four years, from 1958 to 1962, as part of its doomed industrialization campaign known as the Great Leap Forward.
Communism’s staggering death toll is a testament to how deeply unnatural the system is. As historian Sean McMeekin has noted, it is no coincidence that communist regimes rely on violence and coercion to maintain their rule.
Yet it would be a grave mistake to think that communism was “but another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are being written,” as President Ronald Reagan said in 1981.
Communism thrives on the sins of envy and ignorance, and there is no shortage of either. Regrettably, its obituary has yet to be written.
Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have frequently paid tribute to Mao. More than 90 percent of the 130 monuments to Stalin in Russia have been built since Vladimir Putin took power in 2000.
Perhaps the greatest threat communism poses to America comes from within. A new generation has come of age and to them the Cold War and the Soviet Union are ancient history.
An August 2026 CNBC poll found that nearly half of 18-to 34-year-olds view “democratic” socialism, communism’s “human face,” positively. A 2025 survey by the Cato Institute found that 34 percent of respondents ages 18 to 29 had a “favorable view” of communism.
American schools rightly teach students about slavery because learning of its brutality is essential to understanding our history and ensuring its evils are not forgotten, minimized, or repeated. Communism deserves the same treatment. An ideology responsible for the deaths of scores of millions should not be relegated to a few paragraphs in a history textbook, particularly when growing numbers now view it favorably.
Candidates affiliated with the DSA have won races throughout the country, perhaps most notably in New York City. Hasan Piker, a popular left-wing streamer who has campaigned with many Democrats, has called Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong “one of the great leaders of the world.”
Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis, have been at the forefront of confronting this scourge.
In 2024, DeSantis and the Florida legislature enacted Senate Bill 1264, which mandated that Florida’s public schools teach the history of communism.
CLOSING THE TOURIST VISA LOOPHOLE
The fight against communism must continue. It can still be lost. Public schools, which have long been captive to left-wing ideologies, are a crucial front in that battle. School choice and private schools are great options, but not everyone can take advantage of them.
Florida is lighting the way, and other states should follow suit. As George Orwell wrote, “Who controls the past controls the future.” A future shaped by those who celebrate Mao is a bleak one.