Socialism looks appealing when schools refuse to teach its horrific, real-world cost
The US Department of Education has urged schools and universities to strengthen teaching about communism’s history and human toll, ahead of the National Day for the Victims of Communism. The article’s author argues that the request highlights gaps in education and that students need fuller teaching about the record of centrally planned systems.
The article cites Florida’s requirement for high school government courses to cover communist regimes and their victims, and a 2025 Cato Institute and YouGov survey finding that 62 per cent of Americans under 30 view socialism favourably, with more than a third viewing communism favourably. The author says students should compare economic and political systems, including capitalism’s strengths and the harms and rights abuses associated with communist regimes.
- US schools are being urged to teach more about communism’s history.
- A survey found 62 per cent of under-30s view socialism favourably.
- The author calls for fuller comparison of economic and political systems.
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Socialism is a broad political and economic tradition that favours a larger role for public ownership or government in organising parts of the economy. Communism is a related set of ideas that, in practice, has often been associated with one-party states and centrally planned economies, though the terms are not interchangeable.
Governments led by communist parties have included the Soviet Union, China under Mao Zedong and Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. Their histories include mass deaths, political repression and restrictions on civil liberties; the causes and scale varied across countries and periods.
Debates about teaching this history sit alongside wider questions about how schools explain different economic and political systems. Surveys showing favourable views of socialism or communism among some young people can prompt discussion about what people understand by those labels and how historical experience informs their views.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Schools should teach the history and human toll of communist regimes more fully, so students can assess political and economic systems with a sound grasp of their consequences. Supporters of this approach argue that favourable views of socialism or communism are difficult to evaluate when education leaves out repression, deprivation and abuses of rights under regimes that claimed those labels.
The case against
A government request focused on communism’s victims may risk turning education into advocacy if it gives insufficient attention to differences among socialist traditions and to harms associated with other systems. Students are better served by balanced teaching that examines communist regimes’ record alongside capitalism’s costs and benefits, and that distinguishes historical evidence from present-day political labels.