New York Legislators Push Schools to Teach About Jan. 6 Attack

"A bill would require teachers to instruct students about the ‘insurrection at the United States Capitol and its aftermath’"

via The Wall Street Journal By Jasmine Li. Jan 9, 2026

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Democrats in the New York state legislature are pushing to require schools to teach students about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, as the Trump administration sought to recast the riot as a “peaceful protest” five years after the event.

The proposed legislation would amend state law to add “the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol and its aftermath” to the list of topics schools need to teach students over the age of 8. Current law requires schools to cover slavery, the Holocaust and the Irish Potato Famine. It doesn’t specify how the topics should be taught.

State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, who introduced the bill in the lower chamber, said Jan. 6 was a “dark day in American history” that should be on the list of required topics. “I believe it is our obligation as Americans of good faith to teach our children the truth,” said Lavine, a Democrat who represents a district on Long Island.

The bill has faced pushback from Republicans, the minority party in both chambers of the state legislature.

“The American people rejected Democrats’ hysterics over Jan. 6 when they overwhelmingly sent President Trump back to the White House last year,” said David Laska, a spokesman for the New York State Republican Party.

American schools are navigating a divisive political climate, with history and civics material facing increased scrutiny. The Trump administration has threatened to pull federal funding from schools over gender- and race-related teaching. Some educators are steering clear of political discussions in the classroom.

In a September survey of about 1,000 K-12 teachers conducted by school-choice nonprofit EdChoice and pollster Morning Consult, 40% of respondents said they have had to modify their curriculum or discussion topics because of political pressure. A little more than half of respondents said they voluntarily limited discussion of political and social issues in class.

“Certainly in the last year, what’s allowed to be taught or what is required to be taught in the classroom has gotten a lot more national and public attention,” said Donna Phillips, president of the Center for Civic Education, a nonprofit organization.

Some teachers across the U.S. have introduced lessons on Jan. 6.

To mark the event’s fifth anniversary this week, Indiana social-studies teacher Wendell Mosby showed videos and news clips from the day to his sixth-grade class. Students debated the reasons protesters stormed the Capitol, resulting in a discussion about race, political disagreement and social-media influence.

“I felt proud that it was something that’s very relevant, because it happened during their lifetime,” said Mosby, who teaches at a public school in Gary, Ind. “It wasn’t like talking about George Washington cutting down the cherry tree.”

Frederick Hess, senior fellow at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said that while Jan. 6 is a significant example of an attempt to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, overemphasizing recent events in classrooms can make for “bad civics.”

“It teaches students that the right way to look at pretty much everything is through the kind of polarized tribal lenses of 21st century social media,” Hess said. Schools should focus on helping students master foundational skills in history and social analysis, he added.

The White House published a webpage this week describing Jan. 6 as a “peaceful protest” after which demonstrators were “viciously overcharged, denied due process and held as political hostages by a vengeful regime.” Democrats called it an effort to rewrite history.

On Capitol Hill, a Jan. 6 panel created by Republicans is set to hold its first hearing next week. GOP lawmakers plan to focus on the Biden-era Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe into pipe bombs placed near the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees the night before the Capitol attack, according to a spokesman for the panel. A Virginia man was indicted Tuesday on two federal explosives charges.

In New York, State Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat who introduced the bill in the upper chamber, said the Trump administration’s recent statements were “all the more reason” for teaching Jan. 6 in classrooms.

“It’s particularly compelling, given the outrageous efforts to whitewash what happened that day,” he said.