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Marriage and poverty

If a child is poor, her mother is probably not married, had her children without a husband, didn't finish high school, or had her first child before her 20s. That's why I say women can virtually eliminate poverty in the USA by doing the right thing in the correct order.

Yesterday I was reading a senior thesis from Ohio State University about bilingualism in Lorain, Ohio. So the author tossed in some interesting statistics for the metropolitan area that weren't directly about language (Lorain has a significant number of Puerto Ricans). The national family poverty level is 10.2% in the U.S. and 14.9% in Lorain. Now, let's look at the marriage stats in Lorain. Never married--higher than the national average; married--lower than the national average; separated--higher; widowed--higher; divorced--higher. However, in education levels, Lorain does quite well, exceeding the national average in a number of categories. Getting an education won't necessarily undo other mistakes made young. Unfortunately, girls won't learn this kind of "radical math" in school.