Creator of 1619 Project says she regrets school-choice decision for her daughter

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the journalist behind the 1619 Project, published an essay admitting regret over sending her 16-year-old daughter Najya to P.S. 307, a Brooklyn school serving mostly Black and Latino low-income students. After reviewing decades of correspondence with teachers and principals, she said Najya deserved a better education and apologized for putting her own anti-segregation goals first. Najya echoed the sentiment, expressing that she wished her mother had considered her personal academic needs more.

School-choice proponent Corey DeAngelis criticized the decision, arguing parents should not sacrifice their children for ideological aims and should support policies that let funding follow the student. The essay contrasts Hannah-Jones’s earlier 2016 argument that middle-class families could help desegregate schools by enrolling their children, highlighting later academic shortcomings such as limited homework and gaps in math preparation. The discussion occurs amid ongoing debates in New York over school-choice programs and scholarship initiatives.