The current controversy involving journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones and the education of her daughter ought to cause Black America to enter into a discussion that goes well beyond the question of whether one mother made the correct choice for one child. Hannah-Jones has been open about the fact that she intentionally enrolled her daughter in predominantly Black public schools since she believed in integration, in public education, and in a duty to children beyond her own family. Many years later, however, her daughter questioned that decision and told her mother that she had not received the education she had hoped for. Hannah-Jones eventually admitted she had come to believe her daughter had been shortchanged educationally.
There will be a great deal of debate about whether Hannah-Jones was correct. I think there is a more significant question that Black America should be addressing: why are Black parents always having to decide between saving their own children and supporting the schools that serve their communities? At some point, we should stop viewing escape from failing institutions as our main educational strategy and start seriously discussing ways to gain more power, influence, and accountability over the institutions that educate our children.
This has nothing to do with ideology; it is a matter of logic and results. Since a child spends about 13 years in the education system, the final assessment should not be merely whether they have been promoted from one grade to the next or have obtained a diploma. The right questions to ask are: Can the child read at the expected level for their grade? Can they carry out mathematical operations at the expected level for their grade? Can they write, reason, communicate, and cope in the workplace? Is the student ready for college, a trade, technology, starting a business, or entering the job market? And if the answer to all these is consistently no, then some aspect of the system driving those results must change.
The figures from New York show just how important that discussion is. The preliminary statewide results for the 2025–26 school year indicated that only 48 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 were proficient in English language arts, 57 percent were proficient in mathematics, and 47 percent were proficient in science. These figures apply to students statewide, not specifically to Black students, so they should not be used as a measure of Black students’ achievement. However, the NYSED’s detailed 2025 technical report also records the ongoing racial achievement gaps; for instance, the rate of mathematics proficiency among African American fourth graders was 11 percentage points below the statewide average for that grade.
Which is why the Hannah-Jones story shouldn’t conclude with a critique of her parenting choice. It brings to light a more serious issue: a child can get good grades and be put into honors classes yet still be unprepared when they reach the next academic level. In such a case, what are grades actually showing parents? What does it mean to be promoted? What does the honors label mean? If the institution tells parents their child is succeeding while objective academic data paint a different picture, parents cannot make informed decisions.
WE NEED POWER, NOT JUST REPRESENTATION
For many years, Black political advancement has largely been measured by representation. We honor Black mayors, members of legislatures, school board members, superintendents, principals, and other education officials. Although representation has historical significance, it is not the same as controlling institutions. Someone can appear to be one of the children in a school district while still running a system that fails to educate many of them adequately.
Community power means parents know who has authority over the superintendent, the curriculum, the budget, the academic standards, the contracts, and the accountability process. It means parents know who can be dismissed when results remain unacceptable. It means parents have access to clear achievement data before their children reach high school and realize they are years behind. Most importantly, it means educational leaders recognize that graduation rates alone are not enough if graduates are not prepared for what comes next.
New York State’s investigation into New York City’s mayoral control system also raised concerns about community power. According to the NYSED, most participants in its public hearings felt they had not been heard or included enough in the decision-making process. The department’s report noted demand for greater involvement by parents, students, and teachers; more shared decision-making; increased transparency; and stronger checks and balances. Yet the NYSED found no definitive evidence that any one form of governance, on its own, ensures higher student achievement.
That final point matters; swapping mayoral control for another arrangement won’t magically make a child learn algebra. Appointing different individuals won’t automatically improve literacy. Control without standards amounts to nothing, and representation without accountability can turn into mere symbolism. Whatever governance model a community adopts must be linked to measurable outcomes.
STOP ASKING BLACK PARENTS TO SACRIFICE THEIR CHILDREN
There is no justification for a Black parent to knowingly allow their child to receive a poor education because withdrawing might be seen as abandoning the community; parents do have a duty to protect their children. If a school is unable to provide an adequate education for your child and you are in a position to place them in a better school, then there is nothing wrong with exercising that choice.
Individual escape cannot therefore be our long-term policy for community education. Not every Black family can afford to send their child to a private school. No family can move into a more expensive district. Not every child will be admitted to a selective school. Nothing suggests that every parent has thousands of dollars available for tutoring. If our solution to educational failure is to ask successful families to leave, then we will eventually end up with precisely what we are saying we want to oppose—communities in which the families with the most resources, the highest expectations, and the greatest political influence disappear from their neighborhood schools.
The correct course of action is therefore twofold: protect your individual child while also acting collectively to improve the institution. These principles are not in conflict with one another; it is possible to refuse to sacrifice my child and yet still fight for yours.
Therefore, Black parents should become much more aggressive in their pursuit of educational information. Instead of finding out in eighth or ninth grade that your child is unable to do fourth- or fifth-grade mathematics, you should ask for the results of any assessments. You must compare children’s grades with relevant standardized measures and their actual work, and understand their reading levels. Whenever there is a marked discrepancy between the classroom grades and the results of external assessments, you should demand an explanation.
OUR POLITICS MUST INCLUDE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES
Black America also needs to rethink education’s role in our political demands. When politicians enter Black communities, they usually talk about representation, funding, and protecting public education. While those discussions matter, every elected official should answer one question: What are the children actually being taught?
When spending goes up, but proficiency remains unacceptable, parents should consider why. If graduation rates rise but college remediation or basic skills deficiencies remain significant, people should examine the discrepancy. If authorities alter graduation requirements or assessments, communities ought to ask whether those changes actually improve education or merely change how success is defined. These questions are not the concern of either the Democratic or Republican parties; they are parental questions.
We ought to be just as familiar with school board members and education officials as we are with members of Congress. Parents should attend budget meetings, school board meetings, and superintendent hearings. Churches, fraternities, sororities, civic groups, business associations and other community organizations should regard attainment in reading and mathematics as issues of community development. It would be serious for a neighborhood to talk about economic empowerment. At the same time, generations of children fail to compete in the economy being built around them.
THE LESSON SHOULD BE BIGGER THAN NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES
Nikole Hannah-Jones should be commended for bringing up a highly personal experience that many parents would likely keep to themselves. Even if people disagree with her initial decision, her beliefs, or her conclusions, the experience offers a chance to examine a much wider failure.
The idea shouldn’t be that she ought to have sent her daughter somewhere else, since that would solve the problem for one child only and make no difference to the children left behind.
The real question is this: why can schools keep producing children who are academically behind without causing the same level of political concern we show with elections, policing, housing, or other major community matters? Since education decides who will take part in the next economy, who will set up businesses, who will understand artificial intelligence, who will go into the skilled trades, who will become engineers, and who will continue to rely on systems controlled by someone else.
Black Americans have struggled for many generations to gain the right to attend America’s schools; the next phase of that struggle must be ensuring that once they get into the schools, they actually receive an education.
We must not ask parents to sacrifice their children to show their dedication to the community, nor should we accept a system in which the only way to achieve success is to get away from the community.
Save your child. Then help us change the school.
In the end, Black educational power doesn’t just mean having Black people in charge of institutions; it means Black parents have access to the relevant information, organizational capacity, necessary expectations, and influence needed to get results from those institutions.
And the measurement of that power cannot be who holds the title.
We must measure what our children can actually do when they leave the classroom.
