On Friday, the Arizona House of Representatives approved language in a bill that would require schools in the state to teach stories of people who fled communism. The language is part of a broader education bill that addresses changes in K-12 education in the state.
The language was added to the bill by Republican State Representative Judy Burges and states that schools must offer comparative discussion of ideologies like communism and totalitarianism and how such ideas conflict with American ideals.
Burges said that, if adopted, the new measure would teach students to be “civically responsible and knowledgeable adults.”
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The new bill — including the language on communism — passed on a party line vote 31-25 in the Arizona House.
Under the legislation, public schools would have to offer “a comparative discussion of political ideologies, such as communism and totalitarianism, the conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy essential to the founding principles of the United States”
In addition, school boards in the state would have to create a list of oral histories that “provide portraits in patriotism based on first-person accounts of victims of other nations’ governing philosophies who can compare those philosophies with those of the United States.”
The language of the bill would appear to be a direct slap in the face to those who would teach students so-called critical race theory or the abhorrent 1619 Project — a curriculum that was actually endorsed by Chinese state-controlled media.
The new legislation comes just days after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law that mandates teaching the evils of communism in his state.
“We want all students to understand the difference,” DeSantis explained. “Why would somebody flee across shark-infested waters … why would people leave these countries and risk their lives to be able to come here? It’s important that students understand that.”
And lawmakers in the Republican controlled Arizona House would seem to agree with the Florida governor.
“The reality is [that] one of the greatest threats facing the globe today is communism and totalitarianism,” Republican State Representative Jake Hoffman told Capitol Media Services.
“We have governments like the Communist Chinese government, that their stated goal is to be the world’s sole and only superpower, and that they will achieve that goal through any means possible,” Hoffman said.
Not everyone in the Arizona House agreed that communism is a big threat however. Tuscon Democrat Daniel Hernandez suggested that white people were a bigger threat to America than Xi Jinping and the Chinese.
“You know what’s a bigger threat? White nationalism,” Hernandez said. Hernandez went on to suggest that the January 6 unrest at the Capitol was in a league with communism — an ideology that killed hundreds of millions in the 20th century.
“So, yes, let’s talk about communism,’’ Hernandez said. “But let’s talk about making sure we are not letting people get away with the kinds of things that happened on Jan. 6 and teaching our kids it’s OK to try to overthrow a democratically elected government.’’
Republican Representative Quang Nguyen, who was born in Vietnam in 1962 and emigrated to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War, had the perfect response to Hernandez’s dubious connection between the January unrest at the Capitol and communism.
“White nationalism didn’t drown 250,000 Vietnamese in the South China Sea,’’ Nguyen said. “The communists did.’’
“So don’t take it lightly, don’t mock me, don’t mock what I go through in life,’’ Nguyen said, saying he’d lost much of his own family to communists. “If we don’t stand up to teach communism to our children, we’ll lose this country.’’
The House’s version of the education bill conflicts with the Senate’s version, putting the new language singling out teaching the evils of communism in jeopardy. Senator Paul Boyer (R-Glendale) who helped to push the companion bill through the Senate and he doesn’t agree with the language included in the House bill.
The differences between the House and Senate bills will be worked through in committee before final votes are taken.
“We shouldn’t be dictating curriculum from on high, even if it’s well-intentioned,’’ Boyer said.
In a perfect world, Boyer might be right. It shouldn’t be up to politicians to influence curriculum. However, in this current day when American ideals are under attack by vicious left-wing forces including the media and the Democrat Party, perhaps it’s time to throw the gauntlet down against those who believe that America is responsible for the evils of the world.
The other side isn’t backing down, after all.
