An Arizona Senate panel voted Tuesday to require schools to teach students how communism and totalitarianism are in conflict with freedom and democracy.
The bill requires the state Board of Education to establish a list of oral history sources to provide first-person accounts of other nations compared to the United States.
Republican Rep. Quang Nguyen, who crafted the measure, fled Vietnam when Saigon fell in the war.
"Over 100 million people killed in approximately 100 years of history of communism. And a voice of these victims and survivors such as myself needs to be heard," Nguyen said.
Sen. Christine Marsh, a teacher, joined fellow Democrats to oppose the measure, saying what needs to be taught and how, should be left to the Board of Education The bill now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
