A Parent’s Hard Truth
Nikole Hannah-Jones finally told the world her political experiment hurt her own child. The superstar reporter admitted she sent her daughter, Najya, to low-performing schools in Brooklyn “based on the collective good” instead of what Najya actually needed. It is a painful confession from someone who usually lectures everyone else on how to fix education.
As an NYC dad raising my own kids in the system, this story hits hard. We are told that demographics determine quality, but my experience shows that’s not always true. My children attend Title I, majority-Latino schools where the teachers fight for them every single day. The principal moved heaven and earth to get us back in the building during the pandemic. We are seeing real rigor, not just political slogans.
The Reality of P.S. 307
The facts from Hannah-Jones’ own essay paint a grim picture of the school she chose. “Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here,” her daughter asked, a heartbreaking question, according to the New York Post. Najya suffered through chaotic lunches and classrooms where teachers missed so many days she was parked in kindergarten to “work on her own.”
By fourth grade, Najya was below grade level in every subject, yet the school had never even administered the mandatory reading assessment. Her A’s were fake, hiding that she didn’t understand basic division or fractions. This wasn’t a lack of money. The annual spending per reports.S. 307 exceeds $50,000, a figure surpassing the fees of many private schools. The student-teacher ratio is just nine to one.
Reporters note that a teacher with a master’s degree and eight years’ experience earns about $100,000, with the top scale reaching $140,000 for a 180-day work year. Yet, under the union contract, unprofessional behavior often faces no repercussions. Hannah-Jones blames segregation and racism, but she ignores how the system protects bad actors while failing kids.
The Union Failed Najya
This is not just about one bad school; it is about a system that values adult comfort over student success. Hannah-Jones admits her daughter had “huge gaps” in math basics “that she should have learned in elementary school.” That is a failure of the grown-ups running the show, not the kids.
It is easy to point fingers at white parents for leaving, but we have to ask why the system is so broken. As one student at a different struggling school put it, “When you look at the other schools, it’s mad people, mad opportunities,” but at his school, “really nothing.” We need to stop pretending that throwing money at a broken union contract fixes everything. Institutions and the adults running them shape student responses through their high or low expectations.
This is opinion and commentary from the RapForMayor team.
