1619 Project founder’s experience proves the importance of avoiding one-size-fits-all education 

Like many other parents, I paid great attention to Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent commentary about enrolling her daughter in a low-income public school, only to discover, years later, that her daughter had serious academic gaps.

“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,” the 1619 Project founder lamented in the New York Times.

My heart aches for her and her whole family. We all make choices every day that we hope will not end in future regrets. I admire the painful yet courageous honesty displayed in recounting her experience.

However, I wanted to highlight my conviction – shared by Manikka Bowman – that no parent should ever shoulder the burden of putting their child into a system they believe does not best serve their family’s educational needs.

“We ask parents, particularly black parents, to sacrifice their children in service of an American promise that institutions have repeatedly failed to keep,” Bowman wrote in a recent commentary for Education Week. “That is an unreasonable burden.”

What if a better alternative exists – and is already being used by thousands of black families? The good news is, it does.

Enter Georgia’s homeschooling history

Since legalizing homeschooling in 1984, Georgia has drawn national attention for its many alternative education options.

The Georgia Black Home Educators Network (GBHEN) is one of the associations leading this movement. Its founder, Nicole P. Doyle, notes that black families are the fastest-growing demographic in U.S. homeschooling.

“We slowed down life because we’re homeschooling,” she told me. “If you slow down life, you now have the opportunity to really dive into the things that you need to repair – emotionally, psychologically, spiritually – in your life. And I don’t think many of us even think about that.”

Now a seasoned homeschooler, Doyle is reaching out to underserved, under-resourced families to provide access to educational opportunities they may not otherwise be able to afford.

“We wanted to pull homeschooling resources for those families that are on the fringes, that no one’s really focusing on,” she said. “We’re recognizing that homeschool is not free, and sometimes it’s very difficult when you’re a fixed-budget family with a lot of children.”

Decades later, this rich legacy of homeschooling in the Peach State is bearing fruit.

Microschools, university-model schools and learning pods have sprouted across the educational landscape as more families – particularly black families – escape a system that disproportionately affects their children.

“Families choose homeschooling because it allows them to tailor education to the unique needs, strengths and aspirations of their children,” wrote Aziza Butler, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher turned homeschool mom, in 2025.

“We are reclaiming a tradition of educational empowerment and community-based learning that has been an essential tool for black success since newly emancipated people set up schoolhouses all over the post-slavery South.”

Not every parent can homeschool, and Georgia’s data reflects this. However, homeschooling provided the foundation of freedom for other educational models to emerge.

Why have homeschooling and other alternative models succeeded where the public system hasn’t? Because they work with parents as the primary educational decision-makers rather than depending on policymakers, officials or anyone else.

Yes, parents can delegate some of their teaching responsibilities to others. Yes, they can hire tutors, explore private schools or choose some kind of hybrid educational model.

However, as the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1925, every child “is not the mere creature of the state” but must rely on “those who nurture (them) and direct (their) destiny” – in other words, parents and caregivers.

This matters because parents are almost always the most passionate, dedicated advocates for their children and their children’s education. They want their children to excel – not just to get by or earn a passing grade – especially if they can go farther and work harder than their peers.

In other words, parents tend to fight for the individual, not the masses.

‘Democracy’ as tyranny

Ironically, C.S. Lewis recognized the importance of keeping education focused on the individual many decades ago in his essay “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”:

“You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them ‘tyrants’ then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of corn, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level.”

In this chilling vision, Lewis describes a so-called “democracy” in which students are trapped within a general rather than an individual time frame, making it a hellish tool to keep children from progressing beyond their peers.

“Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma – Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind,” his fictional demon, Screwtape, gleefully observes. “The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age-group throughout his school career.”

In the end, Lewis writes, the intent and purpose of education will virtually disappear as this theme reaches its inevitable conclusion.

“All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows?”

The best public schools avoid this trap by partnering with parents to enhance each student’s educational experience, with parents serving as the ultimate arbiters of their children’s success.

Unfortunately, too many public-school educators view parents more as opponents than as partners in their children’s learning. Nikole Hannah-Jones discovered this all too painfully while advocating for her daughter, Najya, who was in fourth grade at the time.

“I was trying to signal that we were active and involved parents, that we wanted to be partners with them in our daughter’s success,” she wrote of her efforts to reach out to the school.

“Neither of Najya’s teachers nor the principal bothered to respond. What followed was a series of emails and phone calls and meetings trying to get basic items — copies of Najya’s graded work, her reading assessment, her test results — and receiving nothing.”

As Hannah-Jones discovered, parents cannot force the system to change simply by continuing to send their children there.

“With all the power and resources at our disposal, we left Najya’s elementary school at the end of fifth grade feeling wholly defeated by a system of inequality that may begin outside the school walls but is magnified within them,” she concluded.

Paradoxically, we give the system its power by forcing everyone to participate in it. Once families begin withdrawing and voting with their feet – as Nicole P. Doyle and Aziza Butler have done – we can collectively pressure public schools to start making reforms.

“I have proved my worth as an adult,” Manikka Bowman wrote, referencing her battle to get a good education despite dyslexia, segregation and poverty. “But a child should never be placed in the position of having to prove theirs.”

Agreed.

Until the system demonstrates a real commitment to addressing parents’ concerns, however, let’s protect our children from an educational system that forces everyone into the same mold – even when that uniformity is disguised as “democracy.”