A Bill to Tell Children Communism is Bad: HB1060

NEWS. December 10, 2024, in Little Rock.

Bills are being filed in anticipation of the 2025 Legislative Session. Yesterday, a bill was filed by Representative Richardson and Senator Dotson to compel the teaching of the “perils of communism” and other autocracies.

Pursuant to the Bill, all public schools must have a curriculum that “generates an understanding” of the results of communism and autocratic regimes. These results must include the history of mass murders and oppression, the economic structures of such governments, and their continued failure. The system of education must use China, North Korea, Russia, and Argentina (but not Cuba) as examples.

There is no penalty for the failure to teach these materials.

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ANALYSIS. Okay, what in the Sam Hill is this?

Look, I get it, and I agree, Communism is bad. So is Socialism, Fascism, and Nazism. However, should our government be that involved in education? Isn’t this more of a history, political science, and philosophy lesson?

How are children supposed to conclude that these governments are bad if we just tell them what they must think. And why isn’t Cuba on the list. Do we not care about its brutal history? Did you know that the 1960 Pulitzer Prize in Photography was of a Cuban Batista corporal receiving last rites before being executed by Castro’s firing squad?1

I have been to Cuba.

It’s a dump. Everything there is in “restoration” because it is falling apart. The people are oppressed by the government (though you can get a permit to engage in some capitalist behaviors) and toilet paper is a very hot commodity.

I think it would be better to let teachers teach history and let students come to their own conclusions. My children do not need me to tell them that Nazis are bad because they killed millions of Jews in World War II. I simply need to tell them what happened and, if they can’t tell that killing a Jew is wrong because the person is a Jew, then I have failed as a parent and society has a much larger problem than education.

I have this down as a bad bill. The legislature is supposed to be conservative, and that means we don’t get over regulated by the government. We don’t need this, it’s political fat that needs to be trimmed.

And on that word “Republican,” as Indigo Montoya once said, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”

See the bill here.

* Photo Credit to George Lopez of United Press International

Clinton W. Lancaster

Attorney. America First. Sued Hunter Biden for child support. Represented President Trump in the 2020 Wisconsin election challenge. Former attorney for the Wisconsin Special Counsel. An official “Tough Cookie” per President Trump.