We Need Real Education Equality. Family Structure Must Be Central to Reform.

After 25 years working in education—as a teacher, researcher, consultant, and policy adviser—I’ve reached a conclusion that reformers too often avoid: family structure matters more than nearly everything else we debate. More than funding. More than curriculum. More than class size. And often, more than systems alone.

This is not ideology. It is evidence. And it is lived experience. Across urban districts, rural schools, charter networks, and elite universities, I have seen the same pattern repeat itself. Children raised in stable two-parent homes—across race and income—enter school better prepared, regulate their behavior more effectively, and recover more quickly from setbacks. Over time, they are far more likely to graduate, remain employed, avoid incarceration, and form stable families of their own.

This reality has been documented for decades. The 1966 Coleman Report, found that family background exerted greater influence on academic outcomes than school resources or spending levels. A year earlier, Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned that rising fatherlessness and non-marital births threatened to undermine Black social and economic progress. Those conclusions were controversial then and remain uncomfortable now. Yet six decades later, the evidence has only grown stronger.