Just two years after Nikole Hannah-Jones claimed she “made the right choice” in sending her daughter to a social-justice-oriented Brooklyn middle school, the race activist is back in the New York Times admitting she “failed both my values and my child.”
asserted
she → claim → values
But don’t expect any true introspection from the leader of the divisive 1619 Project about how her ideology failed her.
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ideology → expect → her
Instead, Hannah-Jones continues to blame racism and imagined underfunding for her daughter’s deficient education, not government unions, which are the real cause of New York City’s persistent failure to educate public school students.
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which → continue → students
In a 2016 New York Times Magazine essay, Hannah-Jones explained why she sent her daughter, Najya, to P.S. 307, a low-income, black Brooklyn elementary school.
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she → explain → P.S.
Convinced that segregation caused educational inequality, Hannah-Jones believed that families such as hers could improve a school by enrolling their children in it.
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families → convince → it
Her new account shows how little influence a well-connected parent had.
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parent → show → influence
In first grade, her daughter complained that lunch was chaotic.
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lunch → complain → grade
Hannah-Jones visited and found children running, hitting, and pushing one another while two classes sat without lunches or supervision.
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classes → visit → lunches
Aides and workers watched.
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Aides → watch → ?
The principal did not answer her email until Hannah-Jones contacted the superintendent.
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Jones → answer → superintendent
Hannah-Jones discovered that reading and math assessments were going ungraded.
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assessments → discover → ?
She complained, but the system failed to respond effectively.
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system → complain → ?
When standardized tests suggested her daughter was failing to master the material, Hannah-Jones nevertheless persisted in her distrust of the tests.
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Jones → suggest → tests
She preferred classroom grades and teacher assessments, even after discovering that some assessments were not graded and that the school’s internal measures could not be trusted.
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measures → prefer → grades
The reckoning finally arrived in middle school.
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reckoning → arrive → school
Her daughter received A’s and B’s, including an A in algebra, but failed New York’s Algebra I Regents examination.
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daughter → receive → examination
Hannah-Jones initially questioned the exam.
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Jones → question → exam
Only after hiring a tutor did she confront the truth: her daughter knew little algebra and lacked elementary foundations such as fractions and long division.
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daughter → hire → fractions
The standardized test had done what objective testing is supposed to do.
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testing → do → what
It had pierced the fiction created by generous grades and exposed years of educational neglect.
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It → pierce → neglect
Remarkably, Hannah-Jones does not credit it, nor does she credit the annual state tests that had long signaled trouble in revealing the truth.
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that → credit → truth
Instead, she returns to racism and inadequate funding.
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she → return → racism
Neither explanation survives scrutiny.
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explanation → survive → scrutiny
New York City is projected to spend $41,000 per K-12 student this year, more than any other big American district.
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City → project → district
P.S. 307 receives roughly $44,000 per student at the school level and about $58,000 when central services are included.
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services → receive → level
These are not impoverished institutions but expensive ones producing manifestly unacceptable results.
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These → produce → results
New York’s government unions fight against being held responsible for their failures at every stage.
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unions → fight → stage
Tenured teachers can be dismissed only for cause after a formal proceeding before an arbitrator.
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teachers → dismiss → arbitrator
They ordinarily remain paid during reassignment and receive union-provided legal representation.
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They → remain → representation
Seniority rules can force schools to release newer teachers who may be good rather than ineffective veterans who either cannot or will not do their jobs.
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who → force → jobs
Excessed teachers can be placed in other district schools rather than removed from the system.
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teachers → place → system
Most tellingly, teachers unions have fought to sever student test results from teacher evaluations.
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unions → fight → evaluations
In 2024, New York State United Teachers celebrated legislation eliminating the requirement that evaluations include student performance measures, severing the connection to tenure, and making evaluation systems subject to collective bargaining.
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systems → celebrate → bargaining
It also eliminated mandatory annual evaluations for tenured teachers.
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It → eliminate → teachers
No teacher should be fired because of one test score.
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teacher → fire → score
But clear, objective, multiyear evidence about whether students are learning must matter.
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students → learn → ?
Otherwise, schools can award A’s, administrators can ignore parents, teachers can remain absent, and everyone employed by the system can prosper while children fall behind and fail.
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children → award → system
Racism did not leave Hannah-Jones’s daughter’s assessments ungraded.
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assessments → leave → ?
Underfunding did not give her an A in algebra she had not earned.
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she → give → algebra
Those were failures of adults protected by a system designed to serve their interests rather than those of the children they are supposed to serve.
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they → protect → children
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
