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HJ0007 • 2026

Social studies content standards-political ideologies.

A JOINT RESOLUTION requesting the Wyoming state board of education to amend the state board's social studies student content and performance standards to include teaching benchmarks that analyze the negative consequences of the political ideologies of communism, fascism and socialism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Education
Did Not Pass

The latest official action shows that this bill did not move forward in that session.

Sponsor
Representative Geringer
Last action
2026-02-13
Official status
inactive
Effective date
3/1/2026

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide specific details about the implementation of teaching benchmarks or their exact content beyond mentioning comparisons with American founding principles.

Teaching About Negative Consequences of Political Ideologies

This bill asks the Wyoming State Board of Education to add teaching points about the negative consequences of communism, fascism, and socialism in social studies classes.

What This Bill Does

  • Requests that the Wyoming State Board of Education include benchmarks for analyzing the negative consequences of political ideologies like communism, fascism, and socialism.
  • Highlights historical events and human rights abuses linked to these ideologies.
  • Compares these ideologies with American founding principles such as democracy and individual freedoms.

Who It Names or Affects

  • Wyoming State Board of Education
  • Social studies teachers in Wyoming
  • Students learning social studies in Wyoming

Terms To Know

Teaching benchmarks
Specific goals or standards that teachers must cover when teaching a subject.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill did not pass, so it has no legal effect.
  • It does not specify how or when these benchmarks should be implemented in schools.

Bill History

  1. 2026-02-13 House

    H Did not Consider for Introduction

  2. 2026-02-11 House

    H Received for Introduction

  3. 2026-02-10 LSO

    Bill Number Assigned

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
26LSO-0452
2026
State of Wyoming
26LSO-0452
Numbered
2.0

House JOINT RESOLUTION NO. HJ0007

Social studies content standards-political ideologies.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Geringer, Banks, Davis, Filer, Fornstrom, Lawley, Lien and Neiman and Senator(s) Biteman and Brennan

A JOINT RESOLUTION

for

A JOINT RESOLUTION requesting the Wyoming state board of education to amend the state board's social studies student content and performance standards to include teaching benchmarks that analyze the negative consequences of the political ideologies of communism, fascism and socialism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

WHEREAS, the duties of the Wyoming state board of education (state board) include prescribing uniform student content and performance standards for the common core of knowledge, including social studies; and

WHEREAS, the Wyoming Legislature requests that the state board consider amending the social studies content and performance standards, as part of the state board's scheduled review process, to include teaching benchmarks addressing communism, fascism and socialism; and

WHEREAS, despite continued human rights travesties committed by communist, fascist and socialist regimes in countries such as China, North Korea, Russia, Cambodia, Venezuela and Cuba, multiple national studies and surveys indicate that favorable views of communism, fascism and socialism are significantly higher among young adults in the United States than among older generations; and

WHEREAS, it is important for Wyoming's youth to develop a critical and historically informed understanding of the realities of communism, fascism and socialism, including the impacts of these ideologies on individual liberty; and

WHEREAS, new teaching benchmarks may include instruction on documented historical events and human rights abuses attributable to communist, fascist and socialist regimes, including but not limited to, mass repression, murder, violent land seizures, political imprisonment, concentration camps, forced labor, systematic poverty, general economic deterioration and widespread loss of personal freedoms; and

WHEREAS, new teaching benchmarks may include instruction that compares fascism and collectivist ideologies, including communism and socialism, with the founding principles of the United States, including democracy, individual rights and freedoms, private property rights, merit-based advancement and free enterprise; and

WHEREAS, new teaching benchmarks may include instruction on economic, industrial and political conditions and events commonly associated with the historical emergence of communist revolutions, including the progression from social democratic ideology and policies to revolutionary state seizure of private property and centralized control; and

WHEREAS, new teaching benchmarks may include instruction on common historical and modern methods used to spread communist, fascist and socialist ideologies, including the advancement of critical theory, public shaming and coercive social pressure, censorship or suppression of dissenting viewpoints and forced ideological conformity.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WYOMING:

Section 1.

That the Wyoming Legislature requests that the Wyoming state board of education amend the state board's social studies student content and performance standards to include teaching benchmarks that analyze the negative consequences of the political ideologies of communism, fascism and socialism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Section 2.

That the Secretary of State of Wyoming transmit copies of this resolution to the state superintendent of public instruction and the Wyoming state board of education.

(END)
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HJ0007