On this episode of The Report Card, Nat interviews Nate Hilger, author of The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis. Prior to writing The Parent Trap, Nate was a professor of economics at Brown University, a Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a lead policy consultant on early childhood and non-K12 child development issues for Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign.

Nat and Nate discuss why disparities in life outcomes are not mainly attributable to disparities in schools, why relying too heavily on parents to develop skills in children will perpetuate inequalities, big data in education, the lessons of Perry Preschool and Abecedarian, skill transmission in Asian American communities, why we need to spend more on education R&D, Cora Hillis, what a study about the management practices of businesses in India can teach us about parenting, the IRS databank, Childcare with a capital 'C', the decision to have five or more kids, universal pre-k, and more.

Show Notes:

The Parent Trap: How to Stop Overloading Parents and Fix Our Inequality Crisis

Why do we provide so much more support to the old than the young?

The 100-year legacy of America’s first big national investment in families

How Does Your Kindergarten Classroom Affect Your Earnings? Evidence from Project Star

Parental Job Loss and Children's Long-Term Outcomes: Evidence from 7 Million Fathers' Layoffs