Stricken language would be deleted from and underlined language would be added to present law.
Act 134 of the Regular Session
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State of Arkansas As Engrossed: H1/15/25 H1/28/25 H2/10/25 1
95th General Assembly A Bill 2
Regular Session, 2025 HOUSE BILL 1060 3
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By: Representative R. Scott Richardson 5
By: Senator J. Dotson 6
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For An Act To Be Entitled 8
AN ACT TO REVISE THE INSTRUCTION PROVIDED ON THE 9
FAILURE OF COMMUNIST AND AUTOCRATIC SYSTEMS AND TO 10
REINFORCE IN REQUIRED INSTRUCTION THE RESILIENCY OF 11
THE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC SYSTEM ADOPTED BY THE 12
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. 13
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Subtitle 16
TO REVISE THE INSTRUCTION PROVIDED ON 17
THE FAILURE OF COMMUNIST AND AUTOCRATIC 18
SYSTEMS AND TO REINFORCE IN REQUIRED 19
INSTRUCTION THE RESILIENCY OF THE 20
CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC SYSTEM ADOPTED 21
BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 22
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS: 24
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SECTION 1. Arkansas Code Title 6, Chapter 16, Subchapter 1, is amended 26
to add an additional section to read as follows: 27
6-16-156. Communism and autocratic government education — Update to existing 28
standards — Definition. 29
(a) Prior to the 2026-2027 school year, the Department of Education 30
shall review and update current social studies standards for grades seven 31
through twelve (7-12) in all public schools to include age -appropriate 32
adjustments in order to ensure curricula, standards, materials, and units 33
accurately compare and contrast the resiliency of the United States's 34
constitutional republic with the failures of communism and autocratic 35
government systems and other democratic government systems. 36 As Engrossed: H1/15/25 H1/28/25 H2/10/25 HB1060
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(b) The updated standards under subsection (a) of this section shall 1
include the following without limitation: 2
(1) The adherence to constitutional limitation in the United 3
States Government; 4
(2) The value of an educated citizenry and its ability to alter 5
government direction via elections; 6
(3) The general subservience of constitutional republics to the 7
citizens, while other forms of government require subservience to a single 8
government institution or a single government leader; 9
(4) The record of mass murder and oppression committed as a 10
result of communism and autocratic governments; 11
(5) The economic structures and related collapses of the 12
economic structures in countries that have adopted communism and autocratic 13
government policies or systems; 14
(6) The issues and failures associated with communism and 15
autocratic governments; 16
(7) The continued failure of communism and autocratic 17
governments resulting from the direct influences of the following without 18
limitation: 19
(A) The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and its 20
successor state, Russia; 21
(B) The People's Republic of China; 22
(C) Democratic People's Republic of Korea; and 23
(D) Argentina; and 24
(8) The natural deterioration of democracies into autocracies 25
over history, including without limitation in Afghanistan, the Democratic 26
Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. 27
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(c) As used in this section, “communism and autocratic 29
government" means a system of government in which absolute power over a state 30
is concentrated in the hands of a single person or party, whose decisions are 31
subject to neither external legal constraints nor regularized mechanisms of 32
popular control. 33
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APPROVED: 2/25/25 36