By: Campbell, et al. S.B. No. 24
(In the Senate - Filed March 5, 2025; March 6, 2025, read
first time and referred to Committee on Education K-16;
March 17, 2025, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 10, Nays 0; March 17, 2025,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 24 By: Bettencourt
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the inclusion of an understanding of communist regimes
and ideologies in the essential knowledge and skills for the social
studies curriculum for certain public school students.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 28.002, Education Code, is amended by
adding Subsections (h-11) and (h-12) to read as follows:
(h-11) In adopting the essential knowledge and skills for
the social studies curriculum for each grade level from grade 4
through grade 12, the State Board of Education shall, as
appropriate, adopt essential knowledge and skills that develop each
student's understanding of communist regimes and ideologies and
include age appropriate and developmentally appropriate
instruction with information on:
(1) the history of and tactics used by communist
movements in the United States;
(2) historical events and atrocities attributable to
communist regimes, including:
(A) the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap
Forward;
(B) the Holodomor, otherwise known as the
Ukrainian Famine;
(C) the Soviet-era political purge known as the
Great Terror;
(D) the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot and the
Khmer Rouge;
(E) the origins and policies of the Communist
Party of Cuba;
(F) communist guerrilla movements in Latin
America; and
(G) the oppression and suffering experienced by
people living under communist regimes, including mass murder,
violent land seizures, show trials, concentration camps, forced
labor, poverty, and general economic deterioration;
(3) a comparative analysis of:
(A) the ideologies of communism and
totalitarianism contrasted with the United States' founding
principles of freedom and democracy; and
(B) collectivist ideologies contrasted with the
United States' founding principles of individual rights,
merit-based advancement, and free enterprise;
(4) modern threats to the United States and its allies
posed by communist regimes and ideologies;
(5) common economic, industrial, and political events
that historically precede communist revolutions;
(6) the evolution of communist ideologies from
economic, class-based theories into broader cultural movements
that divide societies and maintain collective control over
individual rights;
(7) common historical and modern methods used to
spread communist ideologies, including:
(A) propaganda;
(B) public shaming tactics;
(C) censorship; and
(D) forced conformity; and
(8) first-person accounts, in the form of in-person,
video-recorded, or written testimony, from the victims of communist
regimes.
(h-12) In adopting the essential knowledge and skills
required under Subsection (h-11), the State Board of Education:
(1) shall adopt and publish standards for the required
instruction;
(2) shall seek input from:
(A) victims of communism willing to share their
first-person accounts; and
(B) nationally recognized organizations
dedicated to commemorating victims of communism; and
(3) may incorporate material from existing
educational programs that provide instruction on the topic of
communist regimes and ideologies, if the material meets the
standards adopted by the State Board of Education under Subdivision
(1).
SECTION 2. This Act applies beginning with the 2026-2027
school year.
SECTION 3. Not later than July 31, 2026, the State Board of
Education shall review and revise, as needed, the essential
knowledge and skills of the social studies curriculum as required
by Section 28.002(h-11), Education Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
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