Earlier this year, MIT-trained economist Melissa Kearney walked to a podium at the University of Mississippi’s Declaration of Independence Center and launched into the clearest explanation of why Mississippi remains stuck in last place in many rankings: broken families.
The data are undeniable. Children born into single-parent homes are five times more likely to end up in poverty. And they’re much more likely to end up in prison. And they’re much less likely to graduate high school. The list goes on.
This is not to suggest that a child’s life is hopeless when raised by a single parent. Kids born to single mothers can succeed—I have single mothers in my family and have seen that firsthand—but statistically, it’s harder. Kearney points out in her book The Two-Parent Privilege that two wage earners pouring resources into a child, two parents spending time with a child, and two parents sharing the burden of household work all benefit tots in a home.
Sadly, Mississippi has more than its fair share of children without that level of support. According to federal data, over 54% of Mississippi children are born into single-parent homes, one of the highest rates in the country. Is it any wonder, then, that we have more people in prison, per capita, than any other state? Or that our poverty rate still tops every other state?
Every Mississippi native has, at some point, been mocked for living in “the poorest state” or heard someone from a neighboring state say “thank God for Mississippi” for taking the top spot in a bad ranking. It’s time we fix it. And fixing it will require accepting this hard truth that stable families are the only way forward.
I say “hard truth” because some people don’t want to hear it. For instance, Shuwaski Young, a former candidate for Congress in Mississippi, once said discussing the cost of fatherlessness was an act of “covert institutional racism and white privilege.” Young’s approach must be rejected. Mississippians should not resort to name calling when this topic arises, and we cannot hide our heads in the sand as if it is not a primary driver of poverty.
We must also refuse to accept the myths around poverty. One Mississippi Today reporter once argued to me that the cause of poverty was poverty. Put differently, children who grow up poor will not inherit enough money or go to good enough schools to get out of poverty, so their poverty will be passed down as if in the bloodline.
But this view is not supported by the evidence. We know that making good choices, regardless of whether one is born into poverty, can cure the disease. The Brookings Institute (a left-leaning think tank) famously found that if a child finishes high school, gets a job or goes to college, and gets married before having a child, there is a 97% chance they never end up in poverty. The choice to create a stable family is, again, the answer.
Which brings us to solutions. The steps Brookings describes above (graduate, get a job, get married before kids) has been called the “Success Sequence.” If every child left school understanding and able to recite that sequence—almost like it’s the Pledge of Allegiance—then it would be a great start.
There are other interventions worth debating, too. Kearney argues marriage penalties (the financial penalties that some government programs impose when a person on the program gets married) should be hunted down and eliminated. Kearney also suggests mentorship programs, where kids from broken homes are paired with adult role models (military veterans, etc.), show promise.
In the search for the best policies, we can’t ignore common sense. For example, some say, if fathers are so important, we should let more men out of prison earlier so they can be with their families. But this could have catastrophic consequences. Crime researcher Rafeal Mangual has pointed out that an alarming number of men in prison have sociopathic tendencies. These aren’t the men you want around their children.
Even if you quibble with these specific recommendations, the point here is that we must accept the data and talk about the problem openly. Our lack of two-parent families is why Mississippi’s poverty rate remains stuck at the top. Finding ways to break the cycle of single parenthood is therefore the only way to kill the virus.
Shad White is the 42nd State Auditor of Mississippi.
