Nikole Hannah-Jones, founder of the 1619 Project and winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, has published a personal account detailing how her commitment to local public schooling compromised her daughter Najya's education. In an article for The New York Times, Hannah-Jones describes a decade-long struggle to reconcile her progressive values with the reality of attending underperforming schools in New York City.
Hannah-Jones, a domestic correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, initially sent her daughter to a local public school in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, believing that children should attend their local institution. She noted in 2016 that her middle-class neighbors, regardless of race, were opting out of these schools. Hannah-Jones chose to stay, hoping her prominent position and willpower could improve the school environment.
However, the article reveals that this approach resulted in significant academic challenges for her daughter. At the elementary level, Hannah-Jones observed disinterested teachers and unpunished bad behavior. In middle school, homework went unchecked and academic standards were low. The piece notes that Hannah-Jones's daughter failed a state algebra test, a result Hannah-Jones attributed to the unfairness of standardized tests rather than institutional failure.
The article highlights a contradiction in Hannah-Jones's public stance. In a 2018 keynote at the Color of Education summit in North Carolina, she criticized white families for choosing charter schools over public options in integrated districts like Wake County. Yet, when asked by a Black student for advice on college, she recommended Howard University, a historically Black college or university. The piece argues that Hannah-Jones failed to account for how her own advocacy against school choice and for progressive policies contributed to the schools' poor condition.
New York City's public school system has undergone changes aligned with Hannah-Jones's views. Mayor Bill de Blasio removed competitive benchmarks, known as screens, for middle school admissions during the pandemic, and Mayor Eric Adams maintained this practice. Gifted and talented programs were reduced, and the influence of teachers' unions remains strong. The article contends that these policies, which Hannah-Jones supports, have left many students without options while ineffective teachers remain employed.
Despite these conditions, the article points to the Success Academy charter network as an example of schools serving similar demographics with better results. Hannah-Jones describes the chaotic environment at her daughter's school, noting the disregard shown by adults toward unruly students. She defends the practice of redirecting misbehaving children rather than removing them, calling it good educational practice. The author counters that allowing bad behavior to continue without discipline is harmful to other students and that ineffective teachers should be fired.
The article suggests that Hannah-Jones ultimately secured a place for her daughter in a New York City school that still uses screens for admissions. The author characterizes this as a double standard, where progressive leaders oppose policies for the general public but navigate them for their own children. The piece concludes that when progressive policies meet reality, they often fail, and those in power manage to escape their consequences.