Clearwater High and Countryside High students who returned to class Tuesday, Aug. 11, walked into a social studies curriculum that didn't exist last spring. A new state-mandated "History of Communism" curriculum now requires every middle and high school student in Pinellas County to study the consequences of communist regimes.

The requirement stems from SB 1264, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2024 and finalized by the State Board of Education, which unanimously approved the standards in November 2025. The finished curriculum spans 29 pages and more than 100 benchmarks, roughly three times the length the state dedicates to American History, according to WPTV.

Topics range from the death toll under communist regimes to communist espionage against U.S. national security. Seventh graders will study advantages of capitalism and censorship restricting free speech. High schoolers go deeper into geopolitics, including Cuba's political landscape and what the standards call "the surge of radical socialist thought in Venezuela." The board updated the standards in April 2026 to include the "autocratic rule and subsequent fall" of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

The curriculum was developed with input from the Heritage Foundation and endorsed by the National Association of Scholars. Florida became the first state to adopt the Heritage Foundation's "Phoenix Declaration: An American Vision for Education" when the board voted in November.

Teachers have no choice.

Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar warned in October 2025, when the standards were still under review, that the 100-plus benchmarks would strain teachers already juggling a packed schedule: "There's so many standards that we have to cover in a year that it just doesn't seem possible to do so. We're either rushing through standards, which sometimes teachers get concerned that our students are being shortchanged, or we're not able to cover every standard."

Younger students face their own new mandate.

SB 182, which took effect July 1, requires students in grades 3 through 5 to be taught to read and write in cursive. Pinellas County already taught cursive under state standards adopted in 2014, but the new law makes the instruction a statutory requirement for every elementary school in the district, including Clearwater-area campuses.

Pinellas County teacher Lee Bryant, then serving as president of the Pinellas County Classroom Teachers Association, told the NEA in March that the mandate felt redundant: "The last thing teachers need is another mandate and another test. We already teach cursive."

District additions on top of state rules

The state mandates land alongside district-chosen additions. Pinellas County Schools is also rolling out dual enrollment in accounting technology and personal finance literacy, plus an art education degree pathway with St. Petersburg College.

Superintendent Kevin Hendrick told the Tampa Bay Beacons the district's focus remains on "student experience" and getting kids to "dream more about their future." The district earned its first-ever "A" grade under the current state system, with no "D" or "F" schools.