THE WEEKLY REVEAL

This week:

• Marines still wrestle with what they were asked to do in Iraq.
• On More To The Story, our guest unpacks how America’s public schools became “a microcosm” for the country’s political and cultural fights.
• Why an Ohio elementary school has some of the best readers.

THIS WEEK’S REVEAL

In Fallujah, We Destroyed Parts of Ourselves

Kathleen Faircloth didn’t want her only son, Bradley, to enlist in the Marines.

“He was the reason I lived,” she said.

But off he went to the Battle of Fallujah.

It’s been just over 20 years since that battle: a bloody campaign in a destructive Iraq War that we now know was based on a lie. But back then, in the wake of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed in serving and defending the country against terrorism.

This week on Reveal, in an episode that first ran in January, we’re partnering with the nonprofit newsroom The War Horse to join Bradley Faircloth's unit as they reunite and try to make sense of what they did and what was done to them. Together, they remember Faircloth and unpack the mental and emotional battles that continue for them today.

MORE TO THE STORY

How Public Schools Became Ground Zero for America’s Culture Wars

Mike Hixenbaugh first knew things had changed when someone on a four-wheeler started ripping up his lawn after his wife placed a Black Lives Matter sign outside their home on the suburban outskirts of Houston.

Hixenbaugh is an award-winning investigative reporter for NBC News. He’s covered wrongdoing within the child welfare system, safety lapses inside hospitals, and deadly failures in the US Navy. But when his front yard was torn apart in the summer of 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd protests, he saw a story about race and politics collide at his own front door. So like any investigative journalist, he started investigating, and his reporting about the growing divides in his neighborhood soon led him to the public schools.

As more than a dozen states sue the Trump administration over its policies aimed at ending public schools’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, More To The Story’s host Al Letson talks with Hixenbaugh about how America’s public schools have become “a microcosm” for the country’s political and cultural fights—"a way of zooming in deep into one community to try to tell the story of America.”

One Number to Know

Nearly 40 percent of fourth graders in the US struggle to read at even a basic level. But in Steubenville, Ohio, virtually all of its students have been taught to read well. 

Steubenville has routinely scored in the top 10 percent or better of schools nationwide for third grade reading, according to data from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University—even as researchers have long found that districts serving low-income families almost always have lower test scores.

In Case You Missed It