Nick Gillespie’s October 1, 2026, Reason essay is a personal argument about how parents’ ideals and histories can shape 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 a pointed question: when a parent acts on a principle, is the child’s educational experience getting enough weight?
What Gillespie’s essay argues
Gillespie’s central claim is that parents can carry obligations and political ideals from their own past into decisions about their children’s education. His parents’ choice, he says, grew out of his father’s experience receiving parish schooling during the Depression. Gillespie interprets Hannah-Jones’s school choice as shaped by her commitment to integration and broader structural change. He concludes that parents should put their children’s interests ahead of “settling old scores.” That is the essayist’s interpretation, not a resolution of the broader debate over school choice, segregation, or school quality.
The piece is commentary built around family recollection, not a neutral comparison of Catholic, public, and private schools. Gillespie’s account of his own schooling is autobiographical, and his representation of Hannah-Jones and her daughter should be read as his account of their views.
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, and sent him and his sister to Mater Dei, a parochial high school he describes as now shuttered. He later learned, he writes, that his father had attended schools run by St. Augustine’s parish in Brooklyn during the Depression.
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Gillespie quotes his father recalling the promise behind that experience: “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.” In Gillespie’s telling, his parents’ decision was not simply a choice about curriculum or facilities; it also honored an obligation his father had inherited from a parish community.
What Gillespie says the schooling cost him
Gillespie recalls that Mater Dei offered fewer language and mathematics courses than nearby public high schools, and that his schools did not have music instruction or bands. Those comparisons are his recollections, not independently documented findings or a current assessment of schools.
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He writes that shortly before his 1981 high-school graduation, he learned that $950 remained on a $1,000 tuition bill. He paid it from savings he had intended to use for college. After he graduated from college, he says, his parents repaid him with a $1,000 check. The episode illustrates the personal cost he associates with his parents’ decision, but it does not establish how Catholic schools or tuition arrangements generally operate.
How Gillespie frames Hannah-Jones’s decision
Gillespie says Hannah-Jones described choosing schools for her daughter in the context of her commitment to integration. He reports that her husband initially favored considering parochial schools, high-performing public schools, or private schools. Gillespie’s 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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Gillespie also attributes this statement to Najya in 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?” The New York Times essay and broadcast were not independently reviewed here, so these descriptions and quotations should be understood as presented in Gillespie’s article, rather than as a complete account of their original context.
What the figures in the essay can—and cannot—show
Gillespie cites several figures, but his article does not provide enough attribution or dating to treat all of them as current, independently verified measures. In particular, the year for the per-pupil allocation and the organizations behind the Catholic-school enrollment figures are not specified in the essay.
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| Figure Gillespie cites | Qualification in the essay |
|---|---|
| $43,927 per pupil for P.S. 307 | Attributed to New York City school databases; year not specified. Gillespie says the amount would be higher if certain related costs were included. |
| About 123,000 students lost from New York City public schools | Attributed to The New York Times and measured since the 2019–2020 school year; the cited publication year is not specified in Gillespie’s essay. |
| About 5.6 million Catholic-school pupils | Mid-1960s; organization not specified in Gillespie’s essay. |
| 1.7 million Catholic-school pupils | 2025; organization not specified in Gillespie’s essay. |
These numbers provide context in Gillespie’s argument, but they do not by themselves establish why families choose particular schools, whether a school serves an individual child well, or how current options compare. The essay is not a school-by-school evaluation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to read the essay’s comparison
The parallel Gillespie draws is about parental motivation, not equivalent school experiences. He describes his parents’ choice as rooted in his father’s earlier parish-school experience; he presents Hannah-Jones’s choice as a commitment to integration, alongside her daughter’s reported dissatisfaction. The cases invite reflection on how adult principles affect children, but they do not prove that public or Catholic schools are inherently better or worse.
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For a family weighing actual schools, the dimensions Gillespie raises—course availability, facilities and extracurriculars, financial burden, and the values guiding a choice—need current, school-specific evidence. His essay supplies a personal account and an argument about priorities, not a substitute for that comparison.
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