A frightening account of the current attack on education and intellectual freedom, and how children are exploited for political gain. While They Came for the Schools focuses on the events in one Texas town, anyone who works or lives in a school district that is currently faced with book bans and arguments over curriculum being too "woke" will be familiar with the story of Southlake. Hixenbaugh's research is thorough, and his arguments are backed up by evidence. I recommend this books for educators, parents, grandparents, and even the regular taxpayer who is concerned about what's happening in their local public school district.

NBC political reporter Hixenbaugh shares his investigation into how conservative-right candidates won control of the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, TX. After a series of racist incidents in 2021, the school district attempted to create an inclusiveness policy. A conservative backlash to this ignited & control of the board shifted to a conservative-right majority that prioritizes Christian nationalist beliefs. And, he shows how this did what we’ve seen happen to so many schools across the nation: LGBTQ+ & Black students were harassed & dehumanized, good teachers quit, curricula was rewritten & conservatives remain in power.

Mike's book is well-researched and informative. I appreciated the deep dive into how the usurping of school boards and increase in book challenges by conservatives are well-funded & coordinated efforts that include help from the Texas GOP and GOP legislators across the nation. This entire issue, Mike shares, is a concerted effort by conservatives and Republicans to denigrate and destroy public schools and give public money to private schools where marginalized people can be denied access and the curricula can "teach" whatever Christian nationalist nonsense it wants, truth be damned.

This is a sobering & disheartening BUT important read. I highly recommend it to those who not only want to bring awareness to the machinations behind the surge in book bans, but also shine light on the ultimate goal of this increased effort: to eradicate public schools.

This is such an important book, for such an important time in our country and our schools. We are living in a time where education and learning are not being respected and this books shines the light on that very clearly. Very insightful and well done.

Southlake: a bucolic, all-American suburb of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. If you wish to visit, you can go to local attractions, like the Bob Jones Nature Center and the public art exhibit, or you could go to the Red Door Escape Room for some family fun, or you could take a historical tour to learn more about the city’s history. It is picture perfect, like walking around or living inside of a postcard: on the surface, people are smiling, children are laughing, and dogs are barking at the neighborhood mail carrier. But underlying the toothy grins and happy-go-lucky attitudes, there is a seedy underbelly of microaggression, unconscious/conscious bias, racism/xenophobia, and vitriol, which is astutely addressed in Mike Hixenbaugh’s insightful They Came for the Schools: One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms. Hixenbaugh, a journalist, speaks about Southlake residents in the hopes of finding out more about the scandals plaguing this hamlet, an illustration of polarization.

(My full review is going to be on Cobleskill Commentaries: https://greatbutunknownperformances.wordpress.com/.)

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Easily readable and does a great job covering the past and present issues our public education system faces.

One book I’ve read and I want to recommend, though, is They Came for the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh. Have you wondered why, all of a sudden, strange people are showing up at school boards to harass teachers, the sudden talk about parent rights, the moves to erase our history, and the banning of books in school libraries? I know I have. Where did this come from all of a sudden? Who are these people? Who is behind all of this? What can we do about it? This book is your “Start Here” step.

Hixenbaugh focuses on Southlake, Texas, and the Carroll Independent School District outside of Dallas. Hixenbaugh is a reporter for NBC and has been following this story for the past few years. He lays out how it started with a 2018 viral video of students mouthing racial slurs, how it grew into a fight with parents about DEI and CRT, where the money is coming from, and how the far right is training people to replicate this. Texas was just the blueprint, friends; you may have noticed they are coming to a school near you.

Hixenbaugh writes a straightforward narrative and puts the puzzle together—this is extraordinary investigative reporting with a compelling story. You meet the teachers, the students, the frustrated school board members, and the local politicians. You see the nefarious devices used by dark money. And in the end, you learn how the far right uses a two-front approach in our schools. It all boils down to—take money away from the public schools to fund the Christian private and home schooling industries, and at the same time introduce their version of Christianity back or into public schools. (See this dude in Oklahoma).

I was especially compelled by the story of teacher Em Ramser, the parent “Sharla” and their child “Ren”. There was the story that the media covered—oh, no, this teacher is indoctrinating children when the actual story is that Mama Sharla was upset that her child was trans and blamed the school and a book she found in her kid’s backpack from Ramser’s classroom. Meanwhile, the child’s supportive father moved to gain custody of Ren so that the kid could live in an environment that supported him. I’m sure Rem has had a lot to talk about their mom in therapy and probably very little about one book that they never, in fact, read.

I despise parents like Sharla. Support your damn kid. It isn’t that hard. I’ve talked with several teens who don’t find support in their homes, and it is heartbreaking. Usually, parents do come around. But imagine being Elon Musk’s trans kid or Sharla’s where you are being used as a tool to give your parent a platform to rail against.

I highly recommend They Came for the Schools. I think the title is great because it evokes the opportunity we have right now to fight back and change course. We are seeing what they are up to now, and we can move to stop it.

I’ve worked in the online and technology training industry, and I will never understand how people in this country decided we should not give public education to all. I miss the old GOP that at least seemed to care about educating our people so we could be first in the world with innovation and job skills. That is the America I believe in. Not the one that bans books, DEI, and is so scared to learn from our history.

I give this book five stars. It is an excellent starting point for understanding the far-right Project 2025 playbook around education.

From other reviews I've seen this is true-to-life, which I appreciate. As a teacher in a rural district, the scenario presented here is one I worry about, but I appreciate the author tackling a difficult subject.

As a political consultant working in school board races I have already recommended this book to almost all of my coworkers. The account of one school district told expertly in this book highlights nationwide change, the system that allows for such trends, but also the overwhelming root fear that spurs change. Hixenbaugh's balance of research and relaying a compelling narrative in this book is nothing short of impressive.

Holy cannoli, this was a good book but a story I had NEVER heard and I live in Texas! Southlake sounds like an idyllic city to live in, the American dream, but underneath that facade, was a whole lot of racism and ugly opinions. I have no idea if things have gotten better in Southlake since the divisive school board years, but I would think it hasn’t changed much. People who love their community the way it is are going to be resistant to change, even if it’s for the better of the community.

I applaud the people who stood up and tried to implement more inclusive policies and stricter punishments for abhorrent student behavior, like racism and bullying. When people let politics control public institutions, it can never be good. Politics and religion don’t belong in schools. Kids should be focused on learning. And schools should be a safe environment for all kids. A small minority should not gain control using money and influence and try to push a religious agenda onto schools like happened in Southlake. And which many other school districts tried to emulate.

This book was well written and researched and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a mom with young kids I worry about corruption in schools. Whatever your personal or political or religious beliefs, teach those in the home. The school is a place for all children regardless of these things and they should feel safe and welcome when they are there.

*I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A well-crafted nonfiction from Mike Hixenbaugh, renowned journalist and host of the Southlake and Grapevine podcasts. Even with my familiarity of his work, the book provided additional context into Southlake's past and present and how they are a microcosm of a larger phenomena throughout the US.

This really drove home the importance of small local elections and how they can change lives more than national elections. The need to protect schools is strong and knowing the threats is the first step.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Mariner Books, and Mike Hixenbaugh for the advanced reader copy of the book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I was never so happy to finish a book. Don't get me wrong, this is a GREAT book. The problem is that the subject matter and the events detailed here angered me a great deal, to the point that the two nights when I was reading it, I didn't get much sleep. They Came for the Schools produced a visceral reaction in me.

For the most part, They Came for the Schools is the story of the school district of Southlake, Texas. I wasn't surprised to learn that my daughter, who is an educator, knew of the school district when I told her I was reading it. At this point, it is notorious for triggering events that are driving more and more teachers from the profession every year.

Southlake is a school district that is a suburb of Dallas. For many years, it was one of the top school districts in the country, drawing people to it from far away. This included players from Dallas sports teams, of many different races, who settled here to raise their family. To say that Southlake is an affluent district is putting it mildly. In 2018, a video surfaced of some of the (white) students chanting the n-word. Although horrid, it seemed to be the catalyst for change as a committee was formed to figure out how to educate students to treat each other better, regardless of race, sex, or sexual orientation.

During COVID, however, there started to be pushback against these changes. It culminated in many of the things we see now in our headlines about the state of education in this country, with Governor Greg Abbott and other right-wing religious conservatives using Southlake as ground zero for pushing the "woke agenda" out of schools. This included banning books, arresting school board members they disagree with, virtually ending the concept of a "classroom library" and harassing teachers to the point that they quit.

Mike Hixenbaugh covered the story of Southlake for many years as a journalist for NBC. In this book, he documents the transformation from wanting to help minority students who were being bullied over their race or sexual orientation to being more concerned about making straight white students "feel bad." That's the whole argument the parents have really: diversity and inclusion education might make their kids feel bad, so it shouldn't be done. Never mind what these straight white students are doing to others.

Hixenbaugh details how the parents of these students formed a PAC and financed it, then pushed out board members who were behind the diversity and inclusion program. This became a model across the nation and was used by other districts in Texas where parents formed PACs that were financed by right-wing religious conservatives to take over school boards and try to force their agenda on all the students. Parents' rights seem only to extend to Christian conservatives in their view. Hixenbaugh details how all of this was coopted across the country, particularly in Florida where Ron DeSantis used it as a basis of his presidential run.

The book is well-written and documented. People who live in the district and saw these events play out say it is spot-on. It's scary. Teachers who cared about their students and tried to foster an atmosphere of inclusion and acceptance were marginalized and harassed. Students who told stories of the bullying they received were dismissed. This is nothing new. The bullies usually know they can get away with it and the administration protected them at the cost of the psychological well-being of the students they were targeting.

They Came for the Schools is a good read, but if you are like me, it will anger you. I'm glad I no longer have children in school. Many of the "code words" the school board and others use to target these inclusion programs I hear parroted up here in New Hampshire. I fear for the education my grandchildren will be receiving. There is hope, as Hixenbaugh details, that some of the pushback districts have received in terms of parents forming PACs to counter those who want to end diversity and inclusion and put religious content back in schools. I don't know if I were a young person right now if I'd want to start a family if people like those in Southlake get their way. Public education was once something this country excelled at, and now it's being torn apart.

They Came for the Schools is a journalistic look at a suburb in Texas and their march towards fascism and their influence on other districts doing the same.

This book is aggravating in the best way possible. Hearing what conservatives are currently doing in this country is infuriating. I think this shows a realistic look at what a lot of schools are facing.

It seems fitting to honor the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision Brown v Board of Education (May 17, 1954) with a review of THEY CAME FOR THE SCHOOLS by Mike Hixenbaugh in which he writes about "One Town's Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America's Classrooms." Hixenbaugh's credentials are impressive: senior investigative reporter for NBC News, named a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and won a Peabody Award for his reporting on the battle over race, gender, and sexuality in American classrooms. His debut is extremely well-written, if disturbing, as he skillfully details a history of school composition and curriculum restrictions in the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas, a Dallas suburb. By requiring large lots for housing, Southlake had essentially screened for wealth and race so that "three decades after Brown, America's schools had effectively resegregated, perhaps not explicitly based on race, but according to wealth, geography, and social status." Moving forward in time, Hixenbaugh recounts how a 2018 viral video with a racial slur prompted district officials to take action to establish a diversity program and the resulting backlash. Much of this has been presented in Hixenbaugh's podcast: Southlake, critiqued in Texas Monthly [link below]. His book also describes situations in Virginia, Florida and other states; plus, he chronicles the impact of national politics (and neighborhood PACs) on local school board elections and actions. There is a section on book bans: "without fail, parents leading this new phase of school board activism reported that they were merely fighting to shield their children from graphic sexual content that violated their family’s values. But many parents and activists were conflating references to gender identity and sexual orientation with sex and pornography." Hixenbaugh is unflinching in presenting tough situations and the blow to quality teaching and to student well-being. His research is evident (roughly fifteen percent of the text is devoted to notes and bibliographic references) and this book deserves a wide readership.

Other commentary on THEY CAME FOR THE SCHOOLS: The Washington Post review says, "This razor-sharp book is the masterful culmination of years of reportage." And Publishers Weekly gave it a starred review, remarking, "an extraordinarily detailed analysis of current conservative thought and political activity." But the most succinct is from Booklist, "This is a frightening but all too real piece of reporting, and belongs in every library."

Relevant links:
https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2024/04/commemorating-the-70th-anniversary-of-brown-v-board-of-education-library-of-congress-resources/
https://www.texasmonthly.com/arts-entertainment/southlake-podcast-race-debate/

A engaging account of the battles waged in public education in the last few years. The narrative choices to focus on specific school districts for the reporting work well, as done the connections made to the role of PACs and punditry in shaping the debates over CRT/LGBTQ+ issues in the classroom. There are some sections that demonstrate the cyclical nature of 'culture wars' fought over education, that could have been expanded upon throughout the book; the 'glimmers of hope' offered at the end seem minor in comparison to the pervasiveness and scope of the issues established in the preceding chapters. Overall, however, an illuminating read with a clear perspective and effort to share these stories for an audience that may not realize the scale at which this problem has risen.

The true story of a school district in Texas that actively tried to combat implementing diversity measures. Woven throughout are other incidents across the United States that point to the growing conservative movement to ban "wokeness" from schools.

This was really good, but also a little triggering for me as a teacher. It is so disheartening to see so many parents and politicians actively trying to ban things that would actually help support students. The book ends on a glimmer of positivity, but it is overall hard to feel positive about the state of education in our country. Hixenbaugh does a great job tackling this subject though and covering real teachers who experienced pushback from conservative parents. This was a good read, but prepare for a somber mood afterward.

I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book does a great job of using Southlake, Texas as an example of what is happening to school boards all over the country. Hixenbaugh does a good job of outlining what happened and tried to be as impartial as possible - which is difficult when one side will not talk to journalists. I appreciate that he spends time towards the end of the book talking about the movement towards school vouchers and how destroying public schools is part of a bigger - but silent - plan.

Five-Stars for many reasons but also because there seems to be some Southlake residents bombarding the reviews even though they've never read it...? I think you're proving minor points in this book...but okay. & you call us sheep? Anyway..

This was probably one of the most stressful and aggravating books I have ever read. As a white cisgender female I recognize how incredibly privileged I am in many many ways (& you should too).

I have so much empathy and respect for those falling into any minority group that have to experience similar situations portrayed in Mike Hixenbaugh's book solely based on a foundation of something that cannot be described as anything but hate and discrimination on a day-to-day basis. Even more so for having to interact with those put in leadership positions that cannot even begin to register or understand the negative impact their tunnel vision decisions are having. Their entire argument can be turned around and made against themselves because it has no merit or grounding.

This is such an important read and I feel so strongly about these issues, especially being married to a Male Elementary school educator. I would recommend this to anyone but unfortunately, I know a few people who SHOULD read it but won't because they themselves can't seem to see the "opposing view" they preach.

They Came For the Schools by Mike Hixenbaugh-I had listened to journalist Mike Hixenbaugh's podcasts 'Southlake' and 'Grapevine' so I was very pleased to get an advance copy of his book that releases on May 14. This nonfiction book looks at the right-wing movement to influence local school boards for conservative Christian parents and community members. The Texas communities of Southlake & Grapevine-Colleyville as well as the state of Florida are the primary focus, with examples from other communities around the country. Some folks will disagree with the author's premise that this movement is a negative direction for schools and the country. I am not one of those folks and found the racism, homophobia, and transphobia of many people described in the book very disturbing and upsetting. America's public schools are for everyone.

Phenomenal book. It is so very sad what is happening in schools now. Would be fantastic if Hixenbaugh did a full book about the concerted efforts against library books.