For decades, the public schools of Edina, Minnesota, were the gold standard among the state's school districts. Edina is an upscale suburb of Minneapolis, but virtually overnight, its reputation has changed. Academic rigor is unraveling, high school reading and math test scores are sliding, and students increasingly fear bullying and persecution.

The shift began in 2013, when Edina school leaders adopted the "All for All" strategic plan—a sweeping initiative that reordered the district's mission from academic excellence for all students to "racial equity."

"Equity" in this context does not mean "equality" or "fairness." It means racial identity politics—an ideology that blames minority students' academic challenges on institutional racial bias, repudiates Martin Luther King, Jr.'s color-blind ideal, and focuses on uprooting "white privilege."