When a Parent’s Values Clash With a Child’s Education
Nikole Hannah-Jones says the school choice left her daughter behind, citing weak instruction and lower standards in a system that spent $26,372 per student.
- On Sunday, New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones published an update admitting her decade-long experiment of enrolling daughter Najya in a segregated, high-poverty Brooklyn public school ultimately failed her, citing segregation as the cause.
- Ten years ago, Hannah-Jones enrolled Najya in the school despite having resources to send her elsewhere, explaining she sought to help fight inequality and segregation through the educational choice.
- State records show the school spent $26,372 per student in Najya's third grade, exceeding city averages; yet it failed to teach fractions, skills a 2012 study found critical to future algebra success.
- Najya, now 16, felt betrayed by the experience. Policy changes under Mayor Bill de Blasio—removing letter grades and test scores—eroded accountability, though Hannah-Jones attributes failure to segregation rather than systemic policy shifts.
- The essay sparked debate across the political spectrum. Commentator Coleman Hughes noted the core takeaway: the risk of putting "ideology ahead of her daughter's best interests," highlighting tensions between systemic and instructional explanations for school failure.
14 Articles
14 Articles
My Daughter Couldn’t Read, but at Least I Had Principles – The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Editor’s Note: The New York Times’s 1619 Project won its lead writer, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for historical fiction. She addresses here the backlash she created by revealing how she ruined her daughter’s life by placing her in New York City’s public school system. More than a decade ago, I enrolled my daughter, Najya, in an underperforming, violent, and predominantly Black Brooklyn elementary school because it was in my bes…
ROOKE: ’1619’ Author Nikole Hannah-Jones Sacrificed Her Daughter On The Altar Of Virtue Signaling
The left has watered down a parent’s responsibility so much that they are willingly putting their children into situations that will see them fail to thrive. Infamous “1619” author Nikole Hannah-Jones spent years arguing that, in order to solve New York City’s racist public school system, she and her husband would send their daughter, Najya, ...
KAROL MARKOWICZ: 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones learned the hard truth about schools - NEW YORK TIMES POST
1619 Project founder expresses regret over education choices for daughter Manhattan Institute senior fellow Chris Rufo reacts to 1619 Project founder Nikole Hannah-Jones admitting she regrets her public education choices. Writing in an essay, Hannah-Jones states she feels she failed her child by enrolling her in a high-poverty Brooklyn school. Rufo argues progressive ideals created [...]
POLITICS: I’m an NYC dad — here’s what Nikole Hannah-Jones got so wrong about our schools
Superstar New York Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones confessed to the world this week how she sacrificed her daughter Najya to her own political project. She sent her only child to low-income, low-performing, predominantly black Brooklyn schools “based on the collective good” — not on Najya’s needs. Almost from the beginning, Hannah-Jones writes in a now-viral essay, her daughter hated the chaos at lunch and the laxity in her classrooms. And sh…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 90% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
