Coming From Inside the House

Some independent schools heads will have to unwind ties to federal programs or state programs that could feel the downstream effect of federal funding and policy decisions. For most heads, the call will be coming from inside the house when it comes to the President's troubling political and moral agenda. This is nothing new, as I understand it from the heads in the association I direct. Cultural discord has largely played out in their offices, often with attorneys present, with parents pressing for books to be removed from the library or insisting their children be excused from class throughout the unit on American slavery. My prediction, though, is that these conversations will grow in number and in volume now that the President's agenda and actions have normalized the expression of extreme opinions.

As I wrote in a recent blog post, independent schools will have the opportunity to become countercultural next year. If your school mission now expressly embraces the dignity of human differences outside those markers already protected by the Civil Rights Acts, and sees value in perspectives on the human condition from those without power, you'll have to define and protect that territory.

I think there are two main parts to this effort. The simpler part will be a reminder campaign to the school community, faculty in particular, that Presidential executive orders do not supersede federal and state laws, nor your school's mission and values. They are, in some cases, like the bluffing, blustery letters attorneys write that attempt to play on the ignorance of their audience. Because most independent schools do not receive federal funding, we are not subject to the leverage being used at research universities, where the removal of federal research funding is potentially ruinous . Others orders have been attended by brazen unlawful action: ICE agents trained to bluff their way past security, plain-clothes agents kidnapping people off the street. On that count, independent schools are already defining what constitutes "public space" on their campuses and training front-facing employees for potential encounters. In the end, the most impactful work heads can do is reassure the community that the school will continue to adhere to its clearly expressed values.

The second and harder part will be staking out exactly what your school's values look like in action, communicating that to current and prospective parents, and standing firm when those values-in-action become controversial. On this count, most independent schools will have a broad, blank canvas. With no federal funding to be leveraged against them, independent schools can chart their own course. This is why we're independent. That's not to say that the outside world in its response to these same pressures won't have an impact on independent schools. The College Board has already demonstrated its willingness to capitulate on AP curriculum content, and your college counselors will have even more student and parent anxiety on their hands with shifting institutional values and admission practices at colleges. Nevertheless, most independent schools will be free to admit and hire whom they wish and teach what they wish, affiliate with whom they wish. If the College Board milquetoasts the AP US content, you can replace the excised parts; in fact, you'll be ethically bound to do so and should count on students calling you out if you don't. On the other side of this equation, you can imagine faculty, students and parents questioning the school's institutional affiliations. Now that the University of Michigan has taken down its diversity statements, will the school continue to partner with them for Math Circles? Beyond curriculum and affiliations, the other battlegrounds are the classics--hiring, admissions, health requirements, school celebrations and holidays--old dormant wars with the potential now to be re-prosecuted.

The conflict at most independent schools won't come from federal funding extortions nor from ICE agents; rather, it will come from inside the house, just like the old urban legend campfire story, from parents who misunderstood or were never clear on what your school's Diversity Statement means, who bought the bumper sticker and whatever magic they thought came with it, or who did understand it, but are now emboldened by the national political climate to call your values into question, or from faculty who mistook the autonomy we extend them for a license to turn their classrooms into campaign site for their own political passions. We've always known that our independence is our greatest strength. That will never be more evident than in the next 4 years.