Introduced January 28, 2025 by Josh S. Gottheimer · Last progress January 28, 2025
The bill would improve national understanding and delivery of Holocaust education and inform targeted supports and policymaking, at the cost of modest federal administrative burdens, potential privacy/administrative impacts on local agencies, and political pressure on underperforming districts without dedicated funding.
Students nationwide will receive clearer, more consistent Holocaust education and be better equipped to recognize and analyze antisemitism, bigotry, hate, and genocide.
Teachers and schools will have identified training and resource gaps, enabling targeted professional development and material support to improve classroom instruction.
Congress and federal policymakers will obtain national, comparable data on how and where Holocaust education is taught, supporting evidence-based policy, guidance, or funding decisions.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (and potentially other federal resources) will face administrative costs and staff time burdens to complete the mandated study within deadlines.
States and school districts identified as having gaps in Holocaust education may face political pressure or scrutiny without accompanying federal funding to address deficiencies.
Collecting school- and district-level data could create privacy concerns and additional administrative burden for local education agencies and schools during data gathering.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to carry out a national study of Holocaust education across all States, a representative sample of local educational agencies, and a representative sample of public elementary and secondary schools. The study must examine whether Holocaust education is required or optional, state and local standards and implementation, instructional methods and materials, time allotments, teacher training and barriers, use of Museum resources, and approaches to assessing knowledge and the ability to identify and analyze antisemitism, hate, and genocide. A report of findings must be submitted to Congress no later than 180 days after the study is completed or three years after enactment, whichever is earlier.