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Nick Gillespie’s October 1, 2026, Reason essay is a first-person argument about how parents’ ideals and childhood experiences can shape their children’s schooling. He compares his parents’ decision to send him to Catholic schools in New Jersey with Nikole Hannah-Jones’s decision, as Gillespie describes it, to send her daughter to New York City public schools in support of integration. His account raises questions about parental responsibility and educational choice; it is not an independent assessment of the schools involved.
What Gillespie argues
Gillespie’s central point is that a parent’s conviction can be sincere and still conflict with a child’s educational needs. He sees a parallel between two decisions made for reasons larger than an individual school’s academic offerings: his parents’ choice of Catholic education, which he traces to his father’s experience, and Hannah-Jones’s choice, which he presents as rooted in a commitment to integration and structural change.
He does not establish that one kind of school is generally better than another. The essay offers personal recollection and commentary, not a systematic comparison of public, Catholic, and private schools. Its closing appeal is for parents to put their children’s interests ahead of “settling old scores.”
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Why Gillespie’s parents chose Catholic schools
Gillespie says his parents had limited financial means but sent him and his siblings to St. Mary’s Catholic elementary school, then sent him and his sister to Mater Dei, a parochial high school he describes as now shuttered. He says he learned years later that his father had attended schools run by St. Augustine’s parish in Brooklyn during the Depression. His father recalled being told: “We’re giving this to you for free, they told us, but we expect you to send your kids to Catholic schools when you have them.” Gillespie presents that promise as the family history behind his parents’ decision.
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The costs he remembers
Gillespie recalls that, shortly before his 1981 high-school graduation, he discovered that $950 remained on a $1,000 tuition bill. He says he paid the balance from savings meant for college, and that his parents later repaid him with a $1,000 check after he graduated from college. These are autobiographical details as Gillespie recounts them, not independently documented financial records.
What he says the schools offered
In Gillespie’s account, Mater Dei had fewer language and mathematics courses than nearby public high schools. He also says his schools lacked music instruction and bands. These recollections describe his experience and his comparison with local alternatives at the time; they do not establish what those schools or other schools offer today.
How the essay portrays Hannah-Jones’s decision
Gillespie describes Hannah-Jones as choosing schools for her daughter in the context of her commitment to integration. He reports that her husband initially wanted to consider parochial schools, high-performing public schools, or private schools. The essay quotes the daughter, Najya, asking whether her mother knew the school was bad when she chose it, and later saying: “Sometimes I wish instead of always thinking about other kids, you would have thought about me. I never really got the education I wanted.”
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteGillespie also attributes to Najya a statement from a This American Life episode: “There’s no benefit that came out of you putting me in those schools. There’s no benefit at all. Could you tell me a benefit?” These quotations and the account of the family’s discussion are presented through Gillespie’s essay; the original New York Times piece and broadcast are needed to assess their full context.
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What the figures in the essay can—and cannot—show
Gillespie includes figures about New York City school funding and enrollment, as well as Catholic-school enrollment. The essay’s citations do not establish enough detail to treat all of them as independently verified or current comparisons.
| Figure reported by Gillespie | Qualification |
|---|---|
| $43,927 per pupil for P.S. 307 | Attributed to New York City school databases; the year is not specified. Gillespie says the allocation would be higher if certain related costs were included. |
| About 123,000 students lost from New York City public schools since the 2019–2020 school year | Attributed to The New York Times; Gillespie’s essay does not specify the publication year. |
| About 5.6 million Catholic-school pupils in the mid-1960s | The organisation behind the figure is not named in the essay. |
| 1.7 million Catholic-school pupils in 2025 | The organisation behind the figure is not named in the essay. |
Those figures do not by themselves show why a particular family chose a school or whether a school met a particular child’s needs. The essay does not supply named organisations and publication years for every statistic, so readers should not treat the numbers as a fully sourced, up-to-date comparison.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the essay means for parents weighing school choices
The argument is not that family values should be irrelevant. Rather, Gillespie’s comparison suggests a useful distinction: a reason for choosing a school is not the same as evidence that it suits a child. A parent assessing actual options would need current, school-specific information, including course availability, facilities, extracurriculars, costs, and the child’s own experience. The essay does not provide that comparison for present-day schools.
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- Separate purpose from fit. A commitment to faith, integration, or another principle may shape the search, but it does not answer whether a particular school serves a child well.
- Look at the specific school. Course offerings, support, activities, and costs can differ by school and change over time; Gillespie’s recollections are not a guide to current options.
- Include the child’s perspective. The dissatisfaction attributed to Najya is a reminder that a parent’s rationale and a child’s experience may diverge.
- Do not mistake a personal essay for a policy verdict. Gillespie’s story makes a moral argument about parental priorities, but it does not settle broader debates over school choice, school quality, or segregation.
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