The Massachusetts Senate has passed a bill that requires genocide and human rights education for middle and high school students, CBS Boston reports.
“It is shocking how many young people today have never heard of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the Holocaust, or other heinous genocides perpetrated in the past,” said Sen. Jason Lewis, Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Education.
“This important legislation will ensure that more students understand the history of genocide so that it never happens again,” the Senator added.
“To forge a more just future, our next generation must be educated on the tragic history of the Holocaust and other instances of genocide,” stated Senate President Karen E. Spilka (D-Ashland).
“The importance of this bill cannot be overstated, and I say this as a Jewish woman and the daughter of a World War II veteran who helped liberate the victims of Nazi concentration camps,” she said.
The bill would require all schools to annually submit their lesson plans on genocide education to the Department of Education and establish a Genocide Education Fund that would “ensure the development of curricular materials, as well as to provide professional development training to assist educators in the teaching of genocide.”
The Mass. House of Representatives is now considering a genocide education act.