A new law seeks to make students immune to ideological “indoctrination” in colleges and universities
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into state law a bill that would mandate curriculum about “the dangers and evils of Communism” for students starting in kindergarten. The legislation was signed on the anniversary of a botched US attempt to topple Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro at the height of the Cold War.
The law, which will take effect in July, requires all public schools to teach the history of Communism in an age-appropriate manner beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.
Instruction about Communism must provide a history of the movement both at home and abroad and focus on its perceived atrocities abroad. It must also emphasize “the increasing threat of Communism in the United States and to our allies” in the 20th century, including events in China and the spread of red ideology in Latin America and Cuba, the new legislation states.
One of the main goals of the curriculum is said to be to “prepare… students to withstand indoctrination of Communism at colleges and universities,” DeSantis’ office explained in a press release.
Touting the legislation, the governor stressed that “we will not allow our students to live in ignorance, nor be indoctrinated by Communist apologists in schools. To the contrary, we will ensure students in Florida are taught the truth about the evils and dangers of Communism.”
According to State Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, the instruction about Communism will be “spread across the curriculum, K [kindergarten] through 12 [twelfth grade].”
The new law came on the 63rd anniversary of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, an attempted incursion on the south coast of Cuba by a Cuban exile force that was heavily backed by the US. The attempted military landing was a direct response to the revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power two years earlier.
The attack, however, ended in disaster and had the effect of pushing Cuba closer to the Soviet Union and setting the stage for the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. In 1961, the administration of US President John Kennedy also authorized Operation Mongoose, a campaign of attacks on civilian facilities in Cuba and covert actions designed to undermine Castro’s government.
