Nikole Hannah-Jones on her school choice

New York Times Magazine writer Nikole Hannah-Jones joins us to talk about her viral essay, “In Fighting for Every Black Child, Did I Betray My Own?” It’s about her decision  10 years ago to send her daughter to a struggling, predominantly Black public school in Brooklyn. She was motivated by the belief that investing her family into her community school would have larger benefits that would outweigh any potential academic issues for her daughter.

Now 16, her daughter Najya thinks her mom made the wrong choice and stunted her development. For high school, Najya opted for a selective admission magnet school, the kind which Nikole has long argued against. With the help of private tutoring, Najya now feels caught up, but still can’t fathom her mom’s logic.

Hannah-Jones is now weighing her decisions, what it may have cost her daughter, and what it’s revealed about our public education system.

We’ll talk to Hannah-Jones about the tension that can occur between living our personal ideals and doing what’s best for our individual children, and also what she sees as the failures of our de facto segregated public education system.

Guest:

• Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.