Apparently Le Guin has boasted of how this story "has a long and happy career of being used by teachers to upset students and make them argue fiercely about morality." (In the intro to the second volume of The Unreal and the Real.) It definitely has left its mark on some of my favorite writers. (Most notably, N.K. Jemisin's direct response in the form of "The Ones Who Stay and Fight"--which I think initially inspired me to read a summary of the story, when I probably should have just read the whole thing since it's all of five pages. Less obviously--and more spoilerily--Naomi Novik's

Scholomance trilogy, particularly The Golden Enclaves with the whole protecting-magical-people-with-a-spell-that-crushes-an-innocent-to-death-and-creates-a-mawmouth thing

.)