What I Told RFK's Team at the Department of Health and Human Services

What poor kids need isn’t a secret—we’re just afraid to say it

Yesterday I spoke with a group of advisors from the Department of Health and Human Services. They asked for my perspective on how to reduce poverty in America drawn from my writing, research, and personal experience.

After the call, I sent them the one-pager below. It is a brief summary of the main ideas I emphasized in our conversation. These ideas aren’t exhaustive. But they’re a start. And I was encouraged that a group of federal policymakers wanted to hear them.

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HHS Call with Dr. Rob Henderson (Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute) - 05/20/2025
Topic: Poverty, Family Structure, and Cultural Norms

1. Promote the Success Sequence

1. Graduate from high school

2. Obtain full-time employment

3. Marry before having children

• 97% of Americans who follow this sequence are not in poverty by age 30.

• Support for teaching the success sequence is bipartisan: 69% of Democratic and 66% of Republican parents agree it should be taught in public schools (Institute for Family Studies).

2. Strengthen Norms

• The outward opinions of elites shape a society’s norms, values, and aspirations

• Affluent professionals generally follow the success sequence, yet hesitate to publicly endorse it for fear of sounding judgmental

• This disconnect creates confusion for lower-income Americans. These communities require strong, shared norms around work, education, and family formation

3. Prioritize Family Structure and Stability

• In 1960, 95% of U.S. children lived with their married biological parents, regardless of income. Today, this figure remains high at 85% among affluent families (top income quintile) but has dropped to 30% among low-income families (bottom quintile)

• Marriage has a powerful effect on upward mobility, even controlling for education and income

• A child born to a married mother with a high school diploma is 3x more likely to graduate from college than one born to an unmarried mother with the same education

4. Restore School Discipline

• A student in a chaotic classroom environment will struggle, no matter the quality of the teachers

• The push for school-discipline reform has led to increases in violence, disorder, drug use, and teacher attrition—and a decline in student safety and academic performance

• Continue to empower teachers and schools to enforce discipline to restore learning environments that promote success

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These are not radical ideas. They are grounded in common sense, empirical research, and everyday observation. But for various reasons—political, cultural, reputational—they are often left unsaid in official settings.

We should say them anyway.