Arizona lawmaker introduces bill to teach students about communism's history and atrocities
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Arizona lawmaker Ben Toma fled communist Romania as a child and has introduced a bill to require schools to teach students about the atrocities and failures of communist regimes for 45 minutes.
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Toma remembers the secret police interrogating his father and his family later fleeing Romania and reuniting in the U.S. a year later.
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Toma says communism sounds good in theory but fails in practice by ignoring human nature and leading to corruption, poverty, and the loss of over 100 million lives under brutal regimes.
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Toma believes some Americans are ignorant about communism's failures and his bill aims to teach the historical truth about the suffering it has caused.
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The bill has Republican support but Democrats voted against it in committee, similar to how a Virginia bill to teach communism's dangers was rejected after teacher union opposition.