Book Talk: Mike Hixenbaugh — They Came for the Schools
Award-winning journalist Mike Hixenbaugh delivers the immersive and eye-opening story of Southlake, Texas, a district that seemed to offer everything parents would want for their children—small classes, dedicated teachers, financial resources, a track record of academic success, and school spirit in abundance. All this, until a series of racist incidents became public, a plan to promote inclusiveness was proposed in response—and a coordinated, well-funded conservative backlash erupted, lighting the fire of a national movement on the verge of changing the face of public schools across the country.
They Came for the Schools pulls back the curtain on the powerful forces driving this crusade to ban books, rewrite curricula, limit rights for minority and LGBTQ students—and, most importantly, to win what Hixenbaugh’s deeply informed reporting convinces is the holy grail among those seeking to impose biblical values on American society: school privatization, one school board and one legal battle at a time.
They Came for the Schools delivers an essential take on Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, as they demean public schools and teachers and boost the Christian right’s vision. Hixenbaugh brings to light fascinating connections between this political and cultural moment and past fundamentalist campaigns to censor classroom lessons. Finally, They Came for the Schools traces the rise of a new resistance movement led by a diverse coalition of student activists, fed-up educators, and parents who are beginning to win select battles of their own: a blueprint, they hope, for gaining inclusive and civil schools for all.
Mike Hixenbaugh, senior investigative reporter for NBC News, has been named a Pulitzer Prize finalist and won a Peabody Award for his reporting on the battle over race, gender, and sexuality in American classrooms. They Came for the Schools, his first book, is the winner of the prestigious Lukas Work-in-Progress Award. Hixenbaugh’s work at newspapers in Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, and Texas has uncovered deadly failures in the U.S. military, abuses in the child welfare system, and safety lapses at major hospitals. He lives in Maryland with his wife and four children.
Hixenbaugh will be in conversation with Yamiche Alcindor. Alcindor is a Washington Correspondent for NBC News, covering the administration of President Biden as well as the impact of federal policies on communities across the country and issues at the intersection of race, culture and politics. Her reporting appears across all NBC News and MSNBC platforms including, Meet the Press, NBC Nightly News, Morning Joe, Deadline: White House and Andrea Mitchell Reports, as well as on NBC News NOW. She was previously the moderator for Washington Week, the Peabody Award-winning weekly news analysis series on PBS and the White House Correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covered the administrations of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. She also covered the impact of the coronavirus pandemic including the virus’ disproportionate impact on black people and communities of color. In addition, she covered a range of issues including the effects of federal policies and rhetoric on vulnerable populations domestically and internationally, protests and police killings such as the murder of George Floyd, as well as the consequences of federal immigration policies.
