The Heritage Foundation Backgrounder Executive Summary
The Effects of Divorce on America
By Patrick F. Fagan and Robert Rector
- Mandate that surplus welfare funds be used to strengthen marriages and slow the increase in family disintegration.
- Rebuild the federal-state system for gathering statistics on marriage and divorce, which ended in 1993. Without such data, the nation cannot assess the true impact of divorce on the family, the schools, the community, and the taxpayer.
- Create a public health campaign to inform Americans of the risks associated with divorce and of the long-term benefits of marriage.
- Give a one-time tax credit to always-married couples when their youngest children reach 18. This small reward for committing one’s marriage to nurturing the next generation into adulthood would help to offset the current marriage penalty in the tax code.
State laws govern marriage. Among their efforts, the states should:
- Establish a goal to reduce the divorce rate among parents with children by one-third over the next decade and establish pro-marriage education and mentoring programs to teach couples how to develop skills to handle conflict and enhance the marital relationship.
- Require married couples with minor children to complete divorce education and a mediated co-partnering plan before filing for divorce.
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