Nikole Hannah-Jones ignores who failed her daughter the teachers union

Nikole Hannah-Jones sent her daughter to a failing public school despite being a multimillionaire to make a point: That she’s not a hypocrite who sends her children to private school like other school-choice opponents.Now Hannah-Jones has some regrets.She’s seen firsthand how New York’s public school system exists to employ teachers — and educating students is an afterthought.By her own account, a third-grade teacher missed so many days that Najya was parked in kindergarten classrooms to “work on her own.”In fourth grade, her teachers reported Najya was below grade level in every subject, yet when her parents asked to see her graded work, none of it had been marked.The school’s mandatory reading assessment had apparently never been administered.Her honors-track A’s, it turned out, were fake, concealing her lack of understanding of division and fractions.None of this should surprise anyone.Barely one-quarter of the students in P.S.

307 reach minimum levels of proficiency in math or reading.The DEI advocate has a diagnosis for all this: segregation, underfunding, systemic racism, and the white parents who won’t send their children to schools like hers.Yet Hannah-Jones never addresses how teachers can act so unprofessionally without any repercussion.It’s not for lack of resources: P.S.307 spends over $50,000 per student, per year, an amount equivalent to private school tuition in some of the best institutions in the country.It has a student-teacher ratio of just nine to one.Under the union contract, a New York City teacher with a master’s degree and eight years’ experience earns about $100,000, and the top of the scale reaches $140,000 for a 180-day work year — regardless of whether they actually do their job.This is not a starved institution, but one of the best-funded elementary schools in the world.But fewer than half of the students show up at least 90% of the time — no wonder they don’t learn.Money isn’t the problem; incentives ar...