In the now 50-year war that the U.S. has waged against poverty (mark your calendars to celebrate on Jan. 8, folks), one of the most tightly contested battlegrounds has been single moms. How do we get them — and ergo their children — out of poverty? A new report suggests that one approach, getting mothers married, is not useful and may in fact make things worse. The issue is significant: more than 40% of all births in the U.S. are now to unwed moms. It’s becoming as common a way of starting a family as getting married first. And yet, according the U.S. Census Bureau, about 46% of children in single-mother households were living in poverty in 2013. Only 11% of kids living with two married parents were. (MORE: How Single or Dual Parenting Affects Early Brain Development) It would seem to make sense that a two-parent household was better able to handle the expense, time and energy that raising children requires. Thus, some states have allocated some of their funds earmarked for the needy to have marriage education, to try to cut off poverty at the aisle, so to speak. But some experts criticize that as a waste of money.   At heart, the question policymakers disagree on is this: Are single mothers poor because they’re single, or are they single because they’re poor? Kristi Williams, an associate professor in sociology at Ohio State University, has written a paper on the issue for the Council on Contemporary Families, and her conclusions are that it’s the latter and that marriage won’t solve anything. “The biological fathers of the children of low-income single mothers have high rates of poverty, incarceration, and are likely to have children from other relationships,” she says. (MORE: According to a Wisconsin Bill, Single Moms Are a Child-Abuse Threat) Poverty, with its dreary companions — unemployment, lousy health, rotten housing, hunger and hopelessness, to name a few — puts a lot of pressure on a relationship. Not many couples make it. Marrying a guy who’s not the father … Continue reading Why Marriage May Not Be the Answer for Low-Income Single Moms