It's Tuesday, February 25, 2025. I'm Albert Mowler, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Paul E. Peterson is the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program of Education, Policy, and Governance

at Harvard University. He's also Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. I want to introduce

you to Professor Peterson today precisely because of an article he recently wrote as published

in the most recent edition of the Hoover Digest, that is the Digest, the official journal of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

More on that in just a moment.

You're going to be encouraged by the article he wrote.

It is entitled The Family Way.

The subtitle in the article is this.

Of all the things that help students achieve success and economic mobility, the two-parent

family is the most powerful. So here you have a professor at Harvard University, the Henry Lee

Shattuck professor of government. You have a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution who says,

if you're really concerned about student success in schools, if you're

concerned about children succeeding in schools, what is the most important predictor?

It is whether or not they are living in a home with a mother and a father married to one

another. Professor Peterson begins by writing, let's take a moment to celebrate the economic

and social power of families.

The prevalence of two-parent families in communities predicts their average level of student

achievement and social mobility rates for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, even after

adjusting for income, education, ethnic composition, racial segregation, and other community

factors. He continues, quote,

children learn more if they have two parents, and they benefit as well from living in places

...