Full Breakdown
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s School-Choice Experiment Reexamined
By Drooid · · How we work
Core Event: 2016 Enrollment Decision and 2026 Reflection
In 2016 journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and her husband Faraji placed their daughter Najya in P.S. 307 (Daniel Hale Williams School), a Brooklyn elementary that was then 90 % Black and operating at roughly 50 % capacity. Hannah-Jones described the move as a “public stand against segregation.”
Background & Context
The 2016 rezoning shifted the affluent Dumbo neighborhood—about 70 % white and 11 % Asian—away from the overcrowded P.S. 8 and into the under-enrolled P.S. 307. The plan was promoted as a way to integrate schools while preserving seats for low-income students. At the time, the Hannah-Joneses lived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Faraji served as co-president of the P.S. 307 PTA.
Data & Statistics
- Demographics: In 2016, roughly 90 % of P.S. 307’s students were Black; after rezoning, white enrollment fell to fewer than 10 kindergarteners and now sits near 6 % (DOE).
- Funding: Per-pupil spending is about $43,800. Over a quarter of students are homeless and 43 % have disabilities.
- Academic performance: Chalkbeat reports 17 % reading proficiency and 27 % math proficiency, versus citywide 50 % and 57 % respectively. NY Post cites 28 % reading proficiency in 2019 and 13.6 % in 2022.
- Capacity: Prior to rezoning, P.S. 307 was at 50 % capacity, while nearby P.S. 8 was severely overcrowded.
Official Statements & Responses
Faraji Hannah-Jones likened his wife to Martin Luther King Jr., saying history would view her as a civil-rights figure. A DOE source criticized the former principal, asking, “How are you promoted to run literacy for the entire city when you can’t even get your own students to read?”
Criticism & Opposition
Jennifer Weber, *City Journal*, argued that “bad pedagogy” rather than segregation explained the school’s failures.
On-the-Ground Reports
Amber Thornton, a parent in Washington, D.C., noted, “It either feels like you have to go one way and compromise on the other, and that doesn’t always feel good.” Najya asked, “Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” and later said, “Sometimes I wish instead of always thinking about other kids, you would have thought about me.”
Conflicting Reports & Gaps
Reading-proficiency figures differ: Chalkbeat cites 17 % while NY Post reports 28 % (2019) and 13.6 % (2022). No source provides longitudinal data on Najya’s performance after she transferred to a selective high school, leaving the long-term impact unclear. Funding is documented, but its relationship to outcomes at P.S. 307 remains unquantified.
Verbatim Quotes
- “When those affluent parents come in, we do not want to alienate the parents who live across the street in the Farragut [housing project],” — Nikole Hannah-Jones
- “We thought by sending Najya to a mostly low-income and Black school, we could help improve it for all the children there,” — Nikole Hannah-Jones
- “When it comes to the choices my husband and I have made about public education these days, I feel that I failed both my values and my child,” — Nikole Hannah-Jones
- “Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?” — Najya
- “She does apologize to her daughter, which I think is very important,” — Erika Sanzi
- “Sometimes I wish instead of always thinking about other kids, you would have thought about me,” — Najya
The debate sparked by Hannah-Jones’s essay continues to shape discussions of school choice, integration policy, and the balance between collective ideals and individual educational needs.