House Democrat urges fellow Democrats to support teaching students about the evils of communism

The Texas legislature passed a bill requiring public schools to educate students about the evils of communism.

SB 24, filed by state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, passed the Senate in March by a vote of 28-3, with only Democrats in opposition. On Wednesday, 119 House members voted for it; 13 Democrats voted against it.

The bill was carried by Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, in the House and has multiple cosponsors.

Throughout the debate in the House, Rep. Richard Pena Raymond, D-Laredo, passionately defended the bill and encouraged fellow Democrats to support it.

“Democrats read the bill,” he said. Public school children will learn about “the oppression and suffering experienced by people living under communism, communist regimes, including mass murder, violent land seizures, concentration camps, forced labor, poverty,” he said, reading directly from the bill language.

For those who oppose it, he said, “Democrats, let me tell you something. You vote 'no' on a bill like this, and it defines you in a way that we’re not.

“We as Democrats continue to take the bait and vote against bills like this. Get ready for more, because they're not going to be more of us two years from now. There'll be fewer. That's just the way it's going to go. Because, you know communism is wrong.

“If you think it's right, go live in China for a while. Go live in Cuba for a while. Go live in North Korea for a while. See how that goes for you.”

At one point in the debate, Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Cypress, argued the bill was “dangerous,” would “stigmatize communities” and didn’t fully explain that “communism in its purist form is pacifist.”

In response, Raymond pushed back. He said the bill directs the State Board of Education to create curriculum to teach children “how horrible communism is and what it's all about. It’s happening in countries like China, Russia, North Korea. When you say you see a danger that if this bill passes and we start teaching kids about how horrible communism is … it's going to delegitimize some people in this country. I don't understand where you're coming from.”

Rosenthal kept interrupting to ask a question. Raymond replied, “I will not yield. I'm asking you stop and think. There is nothing good about communism. Nothing.”

“I remember when my daughter was in the 5th grade,” he said. “She came home one day from school on the anniversary of 9/11 and she said, ‘Dad, they didn't say anything about 9/11 at school today. That's not right, Dad. I passed the bill so that they would say something about 9/11 every year from then on, and that's what we have in schools today.

“I passed the bill to make sure that we talk in schools about the Holocaust so that our students would know that that happened.”

The majority of House Democrats agreed with Raymond and voted for the bill.

The bill amends state education code to require public schools to adopt social studies curriculum for grades 4-12 to develop their understanding of communist regimes and ideologies including the history of and tactics used by communist movements in the United States; historical events and atrocities attributable to communist regimes, including the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward; the Holodomor; Soviet-era Great Terror; Cambodian genocide, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; the origins and policies of the Communist Party of Cuba; Latin American communist guerrilla movements; and oppression and suffering of those living under communist regimes, including mass murder, violent land seizures, show trials, concentration camps, forced labor, poverty, and general economic deterioration, among other examples.

It also requires comparative lessons contrasting communist ideology to the American principles of individual rights, merit-based advancement, and free enterprise. Curriculum would also include examples of modern communist threats to the U.S.; common economic, industrial, and political events that historically preceded communist revolutions; communist ideologies and methods used to spread it like propaganda, public shaming tactics, censorship and forced conformity. The curriculum would also include first-person accounts of survivors of communist regimes, according to the bill language.

The 13 House Democrats voted against it, according to an unofficial tally reported in the House Journal, were: Allen; Collier; Flores; González, J.; González, M.; Meza; Moody; Reynolds; Romero; Rosenthal; Ward Johnson; Wu and Zwiener.

Five voted “Present, not voting;” 13 were absent and didn’t vote for various reasons.

The three Senate Democrats who voted against it were: Cook, Eckhardt and Miles.

The Texas legislature followed Florida, which was the first state in the country to enact a similar law. The state legislature passed a bill with bipartisan support requiring K-12 schools to teach the dangers and evils of communism. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law in June 2021.