(Jaun Salinas II, Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — A new bill would require Nebraska’s K-12 schools to teach lessons about the ills of communism.
Legislative Bill 1024 from State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil would require each Nebraska school district, starting next school year, to make time to teach the history of communism — worldwide and in the U.S.
The proposed curriculum would range from covering what the bill describes as “the increasing threat of communism in the United States and its allies through the 20th century” to “mass killings that have occurred under communist regimes.”
Similar state laws have passed in Florida and Texas. Florida Republican U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar has a federal bill that passed the U.S. House that would require the creation of a civics education program to teach high schoolers nationwide about “the dangers of communism.”
“There’s a lot of students, especially in college, and kids that are out of the K-12 school system, who seem to support socialism and even communism nowadays,” Murman said. “I think we just have to be diligent that the risks and dangers, bad things that happen under communism, are taught in our schools.”
Murman, who chairs the Legislature’s Education Committee, said he hasn’t decided whether the bill will be a priority for the committee during the short session.
The bill was cosponsored by five of his fellow Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature: State Sen. Beau Ballard of Lincoln, State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, Loren Lippincott of Central City, State Sen. Dan Lonowski of Hastings and State Sen. Tanya Storer of Whitman.
The proposal also would require students to take a written test “identical to the entire civics portion” of the U.S. citizenship test before completing eighth grade and before graduating from high school.
Tim Royers, president of the Nebraska State EducationAssociation, the biggest teachers union in the state, said the union is “obviously opposed.”
He noted that the subject was already required to be covered.
“These aren’t good standards,” Royers told the Examiner. “This isn’t the right way to teach history.”
Royers also said the way the proposal is written steps on the toes of local boards of education. He said Murman should “let teachers write the social studies standards.”
Murman said lawmakers have the authority to offer guidance on education, and he wanted legal assurance that it would be taught.
