Education Department Urges US Schools to Instruct Students on Dangers of Communism

Education Secretary Linda McMahon speaks to reporters during a briefing at the White House in Washington on Nov. 20, 2025. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

The Department of Education is urging schools to strengthen classroom instruction on the historical impacts and human toll of communism and socialism.

“Students should be able to compare the true history of socialism’s violent ideology, pervasive atrocities, and spectacular failures with the contrasting success of the constitutional republic designed by America’s founders,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a letter issued to teachers and education leaders nationwide on Sept. 30.

In the letter, McMahon said, “Students who understand the history of socialism and communism know that collectivization, centralized economic planning, political coercion, and suppression of dissent lead to untold human suffering.”

China, the Soviet Union, Cambodia, and Ukraine have seen industrial-scale murders that were the result of false promises under socialism, the letter said.

Failure to teach students about historical and ongoing violence and oppression under socialist and communist regimes would make them vulnerable to the same ideas that are currently being peddled by social media influencers and other groups, McMahon warned.

She noted that socialism is the precursor to imposing communism, and applauded states—such as Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Tennessee—that have taken action to ensure such instruction for students.

Last year, Florida’s State Board of Education approved the History of Communism standards while Texas passed Senate Bill 24, which requires instruction on communist regimes and ideologies as part of the social studies curriculum for certain public school students.

“At a time when young Americans are expressing positive impressions of socialism in record numbers, it is more important than ever for students to learn and understand the devastating human consequences of communist and socialist regimes,” McMahon said in the statement.

A recent Gallup poll found that a record 43 percent of Americans view socialism positively.

Politically, 65 percent of Democrats, 45 percent of independents, and 14 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of socialism. Positive views of socialism were highest among those aged 18 to 34, at 57 percent.

In June, while delivering an address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, President Donald Trump said that communism is the “most serious threat” to the United States since its founding and that it seeks to destroy religious liberty.

“Communist Cuba is a corrupt failed state and a persistent threat to U.S. national security, sitting less than 100 miles from American shores,” Rubio said. “While ordinary Cubans endure blackouts, food shortages, and brutality, regime elites continue to hoard the island’s resources for themselves and Cuba’s repressive security apparatus.”