Nikole Hannah-Jones Regrets Daughter's Brooklyn Schooling After 10 Years of Defending Integration
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Sep 20
Nikole Hannah-Jones Regrets Daughter's Brooklyn Schooling After 10 Years of Defending Integration
2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 20
Summary
Nikole Hannah-Jones said she now regrets parts of sending her 16-year-old daughter to predominantly Black, high-poverty Brooklyn public schools, writing that Najya "deserved better" and apologizing that she had been "cheated."
Najya told her mother she "never really got the education I wanted," and Hannah-Jones said that admission forced her to confront years of weak academic preparation, including limited homework, inexperienced teachers and math gaps exposed in high school.
Emily Paige, principal of Najya's former middle school, said efforts to accommodate struggling students could backfire if antiracism meant lowered expectations, calling that outcome "racism under the guise of antiracism."
The reversal marks a break from Hannah-Jones' 2016 stance that enrolling middle-class children in segregated schools was the "just" choice, and it lands amid a broader New York fight over school choice and funding alternatives.