Study: Marriage Reduces Poverty; Politicians Have Misguided Focus

[From article]
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, a think-tank based in Washington DC, said the U.S. was 'steadily separating into a two-caste system with marriage and education as the dividing line'
He wrote in his conclusion of the study: 'Being married has roughly the same effect in reducing poverty that adding five to six years to a parent’s education has.
'Marriage remains America’s strongest anti-poverty weapon, yet it continues to decline.
'As husbands disappear from the home, poverty and welfare dependence will increase, and children and parents will suffer as a result.
[. . .]
Legislators in the U.S., however, appear more intent on promoting gay marriage instead of shoring up traditional heterosexual marriage for the benefit of children.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204263/Growing-married-parents-important-good-education-escaping-poverty.html

Growing up with married parents is as important as a good education to escaping poverty
A stable home 'raises child's chances of escaping the poverty trap by 82 per cent'
By SIMON CALDWELL
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 17:50 EST, 16 September 2012 | UPDATED: 01:39 EST, 17 September 2012