Education - As enacted, requires LEAs and public charter schools to recognize Victims of Communism Day to honor the people who have fallen victim to communist regimes by providing high school students enrolled in a world, the official text

$tate of \!tennessee

                          PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 757

                                                  HOUSE BILL NO. 2089

                 By Representatives Powers, Cepicky, Reneau, McCalmon, Sparks

                                       Substituted for: Senate Bill No. 2168

                                        By Senators Yager, Johnson, Rose

         AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 15; Title 49, Chapter 1 and Title 49,
Chapter 6, relative to victims of communism.

          WHEREAS, over 100 years have passed since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and
the formation of the first communist government under Vladimir Lenin, which led to decades of
oppression and violence under communist regimes throughout the world; and

          WHEREAS, based on the economic philosophies of Karl Marx, communism has proven
incompatible wit~ the ideals of liberty, prosperity, and dignity of human life; and

          WHEREAS, communism has given rise to infamous totalitarian dictators, including
Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot; and

          WHEREAS, communist regimes worldwide have killed more than 100 million people
and subjected countless others to exploitation and unspeakable atrocities, with victims
representing many different ethnicities, creeds, and backgrounds; and

          WHEREAS, communist regimes have systematically robbed their own citizens of the
rights of freedom of worship, freedom of speech, and freedom of association through false
promises of equality and liberation or through coercion, brutality, and fear; and

          WHEREAS, regimes persecuted those who spoke out in opposition and held many
victims of communism as political prisoners, while others were killed in genocidal, state-
sponsored purges of undesirable groups; and

          WHEREAS, in addition to violating basic human rights, communist regimes have
suppressed intellectual freedom, cultural life, and self-determination movements in more than
forty nations; now, therefore,

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

          SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10, is amended by
adding the following as a new section:

                    (a) November 7 of each year, LEAs and public charter schools shall recognize
          the day as "Victims of Communism Day" to honor victims of communist regimes.

                    (b) If an LEA or public charter school provides a world history and geography
          course to high school students enrolled in an LEA or public charter school, then the LEA
          or public charter school shall provide the students enrolled in the course with at least
          forty-five (45) minutes of instruction on how victims suffered under communist regimes,
          including through poverty, starvation, migration, systemized lethal violence, and
          suppression of speech, in conjunction with any of the following topics:

                              (1) Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution;

                              (2) Joseph Stalin and the Soviet System;

                              (3) Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution;

                              (4) Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; or
HB2089
                              (5) Nicolas Maduro and the Chavismo movement.

                    (c) The instruction required in subsection (b) must be taught on Victims of
          Communism Day. If Victims of Communism Day falls on a weekend or any day for which
          students enrolled in a world history and geography course will not receive instruction for
         the course, then the instruction required in subsection (b) must be taught on the next
          school day for which such students will receive instruction in the course.
          SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it,
and applies to the 2026-2027 school year and subsequent school years.

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                    HOUSE BILL NO. 2089

PASSED:  March 26, 2026

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                               CAMERON SEXTON, SPEAKER
                              HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                                                  RANDYMCNAL
                                     SPEAKER OF THE SENA

\lo~ APPROVED this  day of  f\rx:;\      2026

     ~~

BILL LEE, GOVERNOR