We Can’t Solve Poverty Without Addressing Families

By Published on September 22, 2015

Last week, the Census Bureau released the annual poverty statistics for 2014. They show that 14.8 percent of the people in the United States live in poverty (below $24,008 in income for a family of four, meaning with two children), including 15.5 million children. These numbers do not capture all that our society does to help low-income Americans, but they do clearly say one thing: Our nation’s fight against poverty is far from complete, and progress has been far too slow.

As the Census report suggests, one factor that has made progress difficult is the extent to which families are formed without two involved and committed parents. As a former prosecutor, judge, state Supreme Court justice, and Human Services director of 42 years, I have confronted the “marriage problem” for my entire career. By “marriage problem,” I mean the rise in single parenting and decline in two-parent families. In too many cases, fathers are absent.

In 1964, when the War on Poverty began, only 6.8 percent of American children were born to single mothers. Today, that number is about 40 percent. The Census Bureau’s report showed that the poverty rate among families with a female householder is 30.6 percent. For married-couple families, it is 6.2 percent. More than 60 percent of poor families were headed by single parents in 2014.

 

Read the article “We Can’t Solve Poverty Without Addressing Families” on thefederalist.com.

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