On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that mandates public schools to teach the history of communism to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Beginning in the 2026-27 academic year curriculum developed by the Florida Department of Education and deemed to be age and developmentally appropriate will cover topics such as the history of communism in the United States, its growing threat domestically, and “atrocities committed in foreign countries under the guidance of communism.”
The bill was signed on the 63rd anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, a failed attempt by Cuban exiles, backed by the United States, to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist regime in 1961.
During a news conference at Hialeah Gardens Museum, Gov. DeSantis said,
My view is we might as well give them the truth when they are in our schools because a lot of these universities will tell them how great communism is, so we are setting the proper foundation.
Additionally, the bill establishes the Institute for Freedom in the Americas at Miami Dade College. This institute, housed at the college’s Freedom Tower in downtown Miami, aims to uphold democratic ideals by offering workshops, symposiums, and conferences in partnership with Florida International University's Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom.
Miami Dade College President Madeline Pumariega said at the news conference that she believes the new law will help ensure no student in Florida “ever romanticizes socialism.”
Pumariega said:
Through the institute, both FIU and Miami Dade College will partner to make sure that we preserve democracy in the Americas. We are as good as our memory is.
The new law also initiates the development of a museum dedicated to the history of communism, with recommendations due to the Legislature by December 1 from the Department of State and the Department of Education. Gov. DeSantis said that he anticipates Miami officials' interest in hosting the museum and expects strong local support for its location in the county, saying:
I am sure there’s going to be a lot of people down here that are going to want to see it located down here in Miami. We will see how that works out.
DeSantis was, of course, referencing the dense population of Cuban-Americans living in Southern Florida and the community's cultural center in Miami. Over two million Cuban-Americans live in Florida, where they are the single largest ethnic group in Miami-Dade County while accounting for a majority in some municipalities. Florida's population comprises 70 percent of the Cuban-Americans nationally.
I am one of those Cuban descendants who doesn't reside in the state of Florida. My grandparents and mother fled Cuba amid Castro's revolution. I appreciate Governor DeSantis' endorsement of this kind of legislation and understanding of the historical plight and impending threats that the too-often glorified ideology of communism imposes.
I find such understandings in short supply in Nevada, where in 2021, I testified against a bill that may be the opposite kind of legislation, requiring woke "culturally competent education" and extending to homeschoolers.
Here are excerpts of that testimony:
Like the student who spoke earlier in the presentation, I am Hispanic Caucasian, and the daughter of an immigrant. Unlike what we heard presented, my mother came from Cuba. There is an entire community of Cubans here in Las Vegas. The history and plight of Cubans and how we became Americans will not be properly taught in schools under this law because the truth of the inequities and horrible governance that brought us into this Nation is not politically popular to point out. Instead, Cuba's excellent literacy programs are popular.
There is no freedom of speech, no democratic presidential elections since the 1950s, no religious freedom, no economic rights, and no eating beef. I could go on. There are six decades of Communist history the schools will not bother mentioning.
The presenter told us the communities must be accurately portrayed, and she used the phrase Latino. I am not Latino. I am Hispanic. Even the presenter seems to not know the difference between the words, which does not instill confidence. Another speaker called the student who presented biracial. Hispanic is not even a race. It is baffling this presenter used another sentence in closing about how close we are to internment camps. Is this innocent little bill we are talking about really conjuring conjecture on internment camps? This should display how political these educational standards are.
Assembly Bill 261 is designed to force-politicize cultural concepts onto children. We plainly do not trust you to teach our children these things. This law is not needed and not wanted. The WCSD just said they adopted antiracism standards, so why does it need to be State law? Assembly Bill 261 does not give more tools in the toolbox; it sets standards of what materials can be used based on checking off boxes of certain kinds of people but definitely not Cubans like me. Please vote no on this politicized education bill.
Cubans are still struggling for basic rights and liberation from an oppressive regime today. Realizing that I was spared that fate and that I have the freedom of speech and press, to write this on their behalf: I want to encourage all Cuban-Americans to keep speaking for those trapped on a prison island, rendered voiceless. Cuba Libre!
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