By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-09-26 15:21:33 | Updated at 2026-09-26 19:43:07
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Kamar Samuels ignored parents’ persistent pleas to remove the principal at a troubled Brooklyn public school where woke NY Times writer Nikole Hannah-Jones “sacrificed” her daughter to promote social justice.
A longtime former DOE official told The Post that city Schools Chancellor Samuels — then superintendent of Brooklyn’s District 13 — was well aware that PS 307 parents were outraged by Principal Stephanie Carroll’s poor leadership, but did nothing.
“For the three or four years he was superintendent there he did nothing with her,” the former DOE official said of Samuels.
“This is what Samuels does: he just doesn’t take action and lets problems fester until they explode,” another DOE source said.
Only 28% of students at PS 307 were proficient in reading when Samuels took over District 13 in 2019, and even fewer — 13.6% — were proficient in reading in 2022 when he departed.
“People felt like it was a ship without a rudder,” former District 13 CEC President David Goldsmith said, referring to Carroll.
“She wasn’t up to the task,” he added.
In a New York Times Magazine piece last weekend, Hannah-Jones, 50, described how the school was a chaotic hellscape where teachers made up grades, didn’t assign homework, and would let students run wild at lunchtime.
The 1619 Project author claimed Carroll was uncommunicative and frequently missed work, and fed-up parents, after being ignored by Samuels for years, ultimately filed a Change.org petition calling on the DOE to fire her in 2023.
Instead, Carroll was “fired upwards” in 2024 and became the DOE’s citywide director of literacy.
“How are you promoted to run literacy for the entire city when you can’t even get your own students to read?” said the longtime former DOE official.
The New York Times writer didn’t mention Carroll or Samuels by name in the magazine piece, and instead blamed the school’s woes on racism, a move that critics said was meant to cover up the DOE’s chronic failure.
“Blaming the PS 307 teachers while not even naming the trash principal is disingenuous. If you can’t call out the person in charge frankly you’re part of the problem,” the DOE source said.
Despite her criticism of PS 307, Hannah-Jones and Samuels appeared to be chummy while her daughter languished there and, later, at Unison Urban Assembly School, also in District 13.
In April 2021, Samuels announced on X he would assign Hannah-Jones books “The 1619 Project” and “Born on the Water” to be read across District 13.
“My baby is a seventh grader. How?? (And yes, still in an unscreened, neighborhood public school and thriving),” Hannah-Jones posted on X in September 2022, seemingly indifferent to her daughter’s academic struggles.
“Warms my heart to see this,” replied Samuels, who was appointed NYC schools chancellor in January.
“Kamar Samuels to be superintendent of New York City public schools is outstanding news for those who still care about school integration and equality,” Hannah-Jones posted on Bluesky in December 2025.
Hannah-Jones’ husband, Faraji Hannah-Jones, 50, serves as the contracts committee chair for the Panel for Education Policy, which oversees the DOE.
He worked as a Web Design Specialist for P.S. 307, between September 2015 and May 2016, according to his LinkedIn.
He insists on his LinkedIn page that the role was unpaid, and said he helped design a website and social media page for the school.
Nikole and Faraji Hannah-Jones, Carroll, and the DOE did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
