Florida adopts new standards for teaching ‘evils of communism’
Tampa Bay Times | Jeffrey S. Solochek | November 13, 2025
The State Board of Education also adopted a statement of priorities authored by the Heritage Foundation.
Citing fears that socialism and communism are infiltrating every aspect of American life, Florida’s State Board of Education on Tuesday adopted new academic standards for teaching children about the history and evils of communism.
“Once socialism and communism take hold … there is no more thinking for yourself,” said board member Layla Collins, whose husband Lt. Gov. Jay Collins sponsored legislation requiring the instruction while in the state Senate. “Our responsibility is to ensure the end of this march toward political violence.”
The board’s action came immediately after it became the first state in the nation to endorse the Heritage Foundation’s Phoenix Declaration, a position paper that aims to set forth what’s “the good, the true and the beautiful” in education.
“I’d like to be for something,” said board Chairperson Ryan Petty, an initial signatory to the document. “We may not all agree on what that something is … but we’re putting a flag in the sand and saying these are things we think are important.”
Petty said he considered the two items as connected.
Too many young people don’t fully understand the value of America’s fundamentals, he said, and they’re lured by alternative ideologies. Teaching the evils of communism fits neatly into the Phoenix Declaration’s goal of prioritizing “objective truth,” he suggested.
The declaration states that areas of priority should include parental choice and responsibility, transparency and accountability, advancement of shared cultural values, character formation, academic excellence and citizenship.
Both items drew their share of criticism from the public.
Carole Gauronskas, vice president of the Florida Education Association, told the board that the standards included a distorted view of history, while also appearing to direct students what to think instead of how to think. Some historians have called the standards biased.
“Let’s try again and not promote this kind of ideologically charged rhetoric,” Gauronskas urged the board.
She and others also had some negative words for the Phoenix Declaration, which some speakers said offers a form of indoctrination made to sound attractive.
“Objective truth is rarely objective. The Heritage Foundation is also Project 2025,” said Alachua County resident Maggie McDonald, suggesting it promotes White Christian nationalism.
The communism standards and Phoenix Declaration also had their share of supporters.
Kathleen Murray of Citizens Defending Freedom applauded the priority statement, saying it reminds Floridians that education is about more than just test scores.
“It grounds education in truth and goodness,” she said.
Myosha Powell, who ran for Hillsborough County school board in 2024, offered strong backing for the communism standards, saying she worried that too many young people are being attracted to a dangerous ideology.
“If we don’t try to rectify the problems in education, us as a public will have to deal with it,” Powell said.
Board members gave their full support to each of the measures.
Vice Chairperson Esther Byrd said she hoped the adoption of the Phoenix Declaration would lead to Florida’s entire public schooling system adopting the classical education model that conservatives have increasingly embraced.
At the same time, board member Daniel Foganholi raised a cautionary note that more steps are needed than changing school standards and expectations.
“I just think the trend that we see in our country is a mixture of a number of things, not just education,” Foganholi said.
He noted the economy is tough for many young people who see the system as failing them. Many are mired with student debt and can’t find jobs, he said, and the promise of something free, better or different sounds good to some.
“We truly have to find a way to make things better,” Foganholi said. “The responsibility is only growing on us to do a better job and make sure that we’re taking care of our people.”
