New York Democrats are pushing a new law that would force public schools to teach students about what they call the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The bill is being driven by State Sen. John Liu of Queens and Assemblymember Charles Lavine of Long Island. They say it is needed because President Trump and his administration have described Jan. 6 as a peaceful protest and have pardoned more than 1,000 people who were charged over the event.
The legislation, known as S6123 and A3966, would amend New York education law to require schools to include Jan. 6 and its aftermath alongside topics like slavery, the Holocaust, and the Irish Potato Famine. It would apply to students over age 8, although the law does not tell teachers exactly how to teach it. That would be left to the State Board of Regents, the State Education Department, and local school districts.
Assemblymember Charles Lavine introduced the bill in the state Assembly, and State Sen. John Liu brought it to the Senate. Lavine has called Jan. 6 a “dark day in American history” and says schools have a duty to cover it.
“I believe it is our obligation as Americans of good faith to teach our children the truth,” Lavine said. He also told Patch that “reality is not debatable. Facts are not debatable. This bill would simply require that the facts of what happened on January 6 be the subject of instruction.”
Lavine said he first introduced the bill in early 2025 because he feared what he called President Trump’s “dictatorial inclinations.” He later accused the Trump administration of an “all out effort to erase the January 6th insurrection” and said the country was being pushed toward “autocracy” by what he called whitewashing history.
State Sen. John Liu made a similar case. He said the Trump administration’s statements about Jan. 6 were “all the more reason” to mandate it in schools.
“Five years after the Donald Trump led Capitol insurrection, his administration continues to spin revisionist narratives to gaslight the American people into believing the events of that fateful day were somehow not a violent assault on our democracy,” Liu said. “It is more important than ever that our schools equip the next generation with the truth, free from bias, and without prejudice, in order to protect our democracy.”
What Version of Jan. 6 Would Be Taught
The bill would require schools to teach what the sponsors describe as “the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol and its aftermath.” Supporters of the law point to descriptions of thousands of Trump supporters entering the Capitol, forcing lawmakers into hiding, and leading to injuries, deaths, and millions of dollars in damage.
According to reporting cited by supporters, about 174 Capitol Police officers were injured and damage to the Capitol was estimated at $2.7 million. Officer Brian Sicknick died within 36 hours after suffering two strokes, although the medical examiner ruled his death was due to natural causes. Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt was shot by police through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby.
The sponsors also point to Trump’s actions that day. He repeated claims of a stolen election and told supporters to “fight like hell.” They neglect to say that this is out of context and the Trump called for peaceful and legal protests.
In their telling, Jan. 6 was a violent attack on democracy that must be taught so it never happens again.
The Actual Truth
The truth is that while there were certainly a very few bad actors in the crowd, Jan 6 was not a “riot” or an “insurrection” and it would have been easily controlled with Nancy Pelosi had not ordered that the Capitol Police not be reinforced. The actions of the Capitol Police in abandoning positions and encouraging that people entered the Capitol building were complicit in the perceived loss of control.
The Democrats did a remarkable job of cherrypicking video and images and telling stories not based in fact. This is certainly not propaganda that should be foisted upon children.
Republicans in New York have strongly opposed the bill. David Laska, spokesman for the New York State Republican Party, said voters already rejected what he called Democratic hysteria over Jan. 6.
“The American people rejected Democrats’ hysterics over January 6 when they overwhelmingly sent President Trump back to the White House last year,” Laska said. “This is another in a long line of distractions from Albany Democrats’ affordability and illegal migrant crises.”
Some education experts have also warned against putting too much focus on recent political fights in classrooms. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute said Jan. 6 is important, but overemphasizing it can lead to 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. He argued schools should focus on basic history and analysis skills instead.
A Clash Over History and Power
This fight is really about who gets to define history. The Trump administration recently put out a White House webpage calling Jan. 6 a “peaceful protest” and saying demonstrators were “viciously overcharged, denied due process and held as political hostages by a vengeful regime.” Democrats say that is rewriting the past.
From the perspective of many Trump supporters, however, Jan. 6 was not a riot, an insurrection, or a Trump inspired attack on the Capitol. They argue it was a relatively peaceful protest that turned chaotic because Capitol security was not properly reinforced. They point to claims that Nancy Pelosi and others refused extra National Guard support and that police were told to stand back instead of doing their jobs.
To them, the story now being pushed by Democrats is propaganda, and forcing that version into classrooms is about political control, not education.
The bill must pass both chambers of the New York Legislature and be signed by the governor by December 2026 to become law. If it passes, Lavine says it would likely not take effect until January 2027.
