In the book I think she makes a pretty strong case that the wide disparity between public schools in the US is a major driver of real estate costs. A single in

In the book I think she makes a pretty strong case that the wide disparity between public schools in the US is a major driver of real estate costs. A single income family that is outbid for access to good schools through real estate prices may send a spouse to work to get access. The single income family that is now excluded may do the same. Eventually you reach a tipping point where every family is expending maximum income to fit into districts with good schools. One thing I believe the book missed is that having two income families also has the impact of degrading the very same school districts as the book ignores the contributions of the non-working parent. Parents who are dedicated full time to raising children volunteer at school, have more well adjusted children and their social networks stabilize neighborhoods. The same forces that move families to send a spouse to work are the same that degrade the very schools that they want access to. The result I believe is a game of survivor where couples with children bid for smaller and smaller islands of the middle class and more couples opt out of having children. How schools are funded is obviously an issue in the US but also explicit tax transfers from single income families to dual income families through things like childcare credits and mortgage deductions also contribute to the demise of the single income family.