He writes,

Currently, over 40% of all American children are born out of wedlock and more than 12% of all children live in families where the mother has never married. Such families provide fewer financial and parenting resources for child development. It is well documented that the children of lone parent families perform worse in life on many outcomes…

Policies that recognize the importance of the early years, the central role of the family in producing skills, and the importance of skills other than those measured by achievement tests are likely to be far more effective than current school-based strategies and adolescent remediation programs.

For Nobel Laureate James J. Heckman to write this is not news. But it seems clear that he is not sold on any silver bullet for education, including tossing out the worst teachers.

I worry that most policies promoted as attempts to deal with income disparities are Hansonian, in that they “show that you care” but have no net result in curing the ailment.