It's time somebody say it loud and clear: God designed marriage as the ideal institution for creating a prosperous, stable and healthy environment for children.

And the facts prove it. Unfortunately, in today's world of drive-by divorce and "love the one you're with" hedonism, too many people have no clue of the importance of marriage as the basic unit of society. That's why the recent "Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study" is so important. It proves that – despite pop culture, despite the fact that it isn't politically correct – the best place to raise a child is inside a stable marriage.

The "Fragile Families" survey is a nationwide multi-year project developed by Princeton and Columbia universities. Researchers at the Heritage Foundation studied data from the first year of the survey and today is releasing an explosive report that shows how marriage vows taken today can immediately lift hundreds of thousand of children out of poverty.

A few key foundational facts:

• More than one third of mothers in the "Fragile Families" study were single when their child was born. But these are not helpless, indecisive teen-agers. The median age for these mothers is 22.

• Almost half of these new mothers are living with the father of their child around the time of the child's birth. Another 23 percent say they are still "romantically involved" with the daddy.

• Virtually every father in the survey is a working man. Ninety-seven percent had held a job in the previous year, and 82 percent were employed when their child was born.

The above three points mean that nearly three-quarters of new parents are still seeing each other when their child is born.

Here's where it gets really interesting. Heritage Foundation researchers designed a simulation to predict what will happen if those mothers remain single, and what would happen if the parents get married. The simulation assumes the father's income remains the same as it was in the year before his child was born. The results are astounding:

• If the mother does not work and remains single, she will raise her child in poverty. They will be dependent on welfare benefits, which will not provide enough to lift them above the poverty line.

• If, however, the mother and father marry and the mother does not work, the father's income alone will be enough to lift almost two-thirds of the families out of poverty. Only about 35 percent will still be poor.

• If the mother works part-time and remains single, more than half the time (55 percent) she will raise her child in poverty.

• If, however, the mother and father marry and the mother works part time, more than 80 percent of the families will be lifted out of poverty. Only 17 percent will remain poor. Continued...