Florida Mandates K-12 Instruction on Communism and Totalitarianism

Beginning in the 2026-27 school year, Florida public schools will deliver at least 45 minutes of instruction on the history of communism, its domestic movements, and the atrocities of communist regimes. The requirement stems from Senate Bill 1264, signed by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2024, which expands earlier civics reforms to cover both international and U.S. communist history. The State Board of Education approved the accompanying standards in November 2025, and the curriculum will be integrated across K-12 grades with age-appropriate content.

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The initiative follows a five-year effort launched by DeSantis in 2021 to overhaul civics education. Initial legislation mandated comparative study of political ideologies, created the “Portraits in Patriotism” program highlighting refugees from Cuba, Venezuela and other authoritarian states, and established a state-wide Victims of Communism Day in 2022. In the 2023-24 school year, schools were required to address communist regimes and their victims for a minimum of 45 minutes. Senate Bill 1264 adds coverage of domestic communist movements, their tactics, and the broader global impact of communist rule.

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Governor DeSantis asserted that the standards will “tell the truth about communism” and its “evils,” positioning the curriculum as a safeguard against the resurgence of totalitarian ideas. Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas emphasized the importance of understanding “catastrophic failures and human suffering” caused by communist regimes, linking the effort to contemporary concerns about ideological influence. Veteran Rafael Montalvo, representing former Bay of Pigs participants, framed classroom instruction as the primary battleground against communism.

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The reforms target South Florida’s sizable Cuban, Venezuelan and Nicaraguan immigrant communities, whose families have personal histories of fleeing communist regimes. By embedding anti-communist content in state-mandated curricula, Florida seeks to make civic literacy and ideological awareness a uniform part of public education rather than leaving it to individual teachers.

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• “We’re going to tell the truth about communism in the state of Florida. We’re going to tell the truth about the evils of communism,” — Ron DeSantis, republican governor

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• “The most important fight against communism is the one that’s done in the schoolrooms,” — Rafael Montalvo, president of the Brigade 2506 Veterans Association

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