Institutional Autonomy and Mission

They Came for the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh
HarperCollins, May 14, 2024

Race, identity, curriculum, parental choice, and school board policy come together to describe a dramatic scene unfolding across small and medium-sized cities that can only be described as a war for America’s classrooms. Written by award-winning investigative reporter Mike Hixenbaugh, They Came for the Schools is a deeply reported account of how a school board election in one affluent Texas town became the catalyst for a national movement to redefine public education. The book explores a well-funded campaign that seeks to ban books, rewrite curricula, and impose a Christian nationalist vision on American classrooms. While the focus is on the public school system, Hixenbaugh offers private school educators a crucial look into the powerful forces shaping the educational landscape. He highlights the growing culture war over academic freedom, DEI, curriculum, and the role of schools in society. By tracing the origins of this movement, Hixenbaugh provides a roadmap of the challenges that educators, regardless of their institutional setting, may face in the future. While Hixenbaugh reveals that the long-term strategy of this movement is to undermine public education and promote school privatization, the reporting underscores the need to be vigilant in safeguarding institutional autonomy and mission against external political and ideological pressures.