H.R. 2080 — Crucial Communism Teaching Act

This section states the purposes of the Act, which are to (1) help families, civic institutions, local communities, local educational agencies, high schools, and state educational agencies prepare high school students to be civically responsible and knowledgeable adults and (2) ensure such students learn that communism has led to the deaths of over 100,000,000 victims worldwide, understand the dangers of communism and similar political ideologies, and recognize that 1,500,000,000 people still suffer under communism.

This section directs the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation—an independent entity established under the FRIENDSHIP Act (40 U.S.C. 8903 note)—to (1) develop a civic education curriculum for high school students comparing communism and totalitarianism to U.S. founding principles of freedom and democracy, with periodic updates on past and present regimes' human rights abuses (e.g., treatment of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) and aggression against democracies (e.g., China's actions against Hong Kong protests and toward Taiwan); (2) develop complementary oral history resources titled “Portraits in Patriotism” featuring personal stories from diverse victims of such ideologies who demonstrate civic qualities and contrast them with U.S. ideology; and (3) engage state and local educational leaders to assist high schools in implementing the curriculum and resources.