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Alabama NewsAlabama Politics
Family Structure Will Impact Our Economy
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: June 15, 2007
There really are two Americas … one which consists of intact families and the other which consists of an economic underclass made up of high school dropouts and women who bear children out-of-wedlock.
The same is true in Alabama.
According to 2004 data from the Alabama Department of Public Health Center for Health Statistics, almost 37 percent of all children born in this state were born to unmarried women. In 1960, only 11.6 percent of all births were to unmarried women.
Usually, the average person reading these statistics draws the conclusion that welfare mothers bearing children out-of-wedlock and children living in poverty is primarily a problem among African-Americans. While it is true that two-thirds of the children born to black families in Alabama are born out-of-wedlock, almost 22 percent of all white children are also born to unmarried mothers in this state. Even though the percentage of black children born out-of-wedlock is more than three times higher, there are almost as many white children born out-of-wedlock because the white population in Alabama is so much greater.
The consequences of these statistics have been severe.
The single biggest predictor of whether or not a child will live in poverty is whether or not the child’s mother is married to his or her father. Based on U.S. Census Bureau data, a child living in a single-parent, female-headed household in Alabama is almost five times more likely to live in poverty than a child being raised in what was once considered a “normal family” where the children’s biological parents are married to each other.
The single biggest predictor of whether or not a child will finish high school is also family structure. The dropout rate in Alabama is estimated to be as high as 40 percent for all races. For African-Americans, it is about 50 percent for all students and about 55 percent for males, most who grow up without their fathers. These are young men and women who will not be able to compete in the emerging job market with peers who earn a high school diploma or a college degree.
Because of major changes in the labor market, those who drop out of school and bear children out-of-wedlock almost certainly confine themselves and their children to low-income status. According to a recent report from the Education Testing Service, between 1984 and 2000 the number of people 16 years of age and older in the U.S. workforce increased by 29 percent, or 30 million jobs. Some 20 million of those new jobs were associated with a college-level education. The authors of the study point out that 46 percent of U.S. employment growth projected for 2004 to 2014 will be in professional, management, technical and high-level sales fields. This further emphasizes the necessity to at least finish high school and if possible, to go to college or technical school.
The failure to finish high school will have even more significant implications in terms of income disparities. According to the Education Testing Service, in 1979 the lifetime earnings of males with a bachelor’s degree were 51 percent higher than their peers with a high school diploma. That gap widened to 96 percent by 2004. Needless to say, the gap is even greater for those who drop out of high school.
While Alabama is currently enjoying the benefits of a robust manufacturing economy, it should be noted that since 1989 manufacturing in the U.S. has declined from 18.2 percent to 10.7 percent in 2003. In addition, many manufacturing jobs require workers to have at least a high school education, if not technical training as well.
The single biggest predictor of those who will be educated and trained is family structure.
This is often the aspect of the two Americas that politicians and bureaucrats do not want to address. One America is married with at least a high school diploma or a college education with good prospects in the emerging economy. The other America is unmarried with children and is a high school dropout with few employable skills which severely limits the ability to compete for good jobs.
The income gap between children growing up in intact families and those who are not is very evident. Kay Hymowitz, author of Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age, says it is remarkable that only 8 percent of those who graduate from high school and postpone childbearing until marriage live in poverty while 79 percent of those that don’t are poor. Moreover, Hymowitz points out that 92 percent of children whose family income is over $75,000 live in a household in which their parents are married. Only 20 percent of children living in households with incomes under $15,000 have both parents present.
Even though politicians talk about the need for more money to reduce the disparity in academic outcomes or more money to meet the needs of children growing up in disadvantaged households, the real issue is promoting a renewal of a culture of childbearing within marriage.
Government programs can’t buy quality outcomes for people who drop out of school and bear children out-of-wedlock. However, government, local communities and churches can work together for a renewal of the culture of marriage that is paramount to the health and well-being of our nation. Without a national commitment to childbearing within marriage, the gap between the two Americas will become a chasm that no social program of any kind can possibly bridge.
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