PHOENIX — The way Ben Toma sees it, perhaps communism is a good idea — but only on paper.
So the Peoria Republican wants to be sure high schoolers get at least a crash course on the history of communist regimes. And his legislation is crafted in a way designed to convince students the system is bad.
“Of course you want to be generous to people, you want to help people, those that have should share with those who don’t,” said the speaker of the Arizona House.
“The problem is forced charity is no longer charity first of all,” he said. “And, secondly, it doesn’t work in the real world. It doesn’t work anywhere.”
His House Bill 2629 would require there be at least 45 minutes of classroom instruction on communist regimes.
More to the point, the proposal by the Peoria Republican would mandate that instruction include “the prevalence of poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence and suppression of speech” under those regimes.
This isn’t the first time Arizona lawmakers have put their views about communism into state law.