A number of readers have taken me to task over my contention in last week's column that most poor people are impoverished by choice. To be clear, I don't mean that one day a person gets up and decides to live in poverty. I believe a person winds up poor because he or she chooses not to succeed.

Truth is, staying above the poverty line is relatively simple. Basically, all that's required is to finish high school, wait until at least age 20 to get married and not have a child out of wedlock. Now how hard is that? Not very, which is why I equate poverty (in most cases) with a conscious set of choices.

William Galston, a former adviser to President Clinton and scholar at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, devised that lucid, easy to follow anti-poverty formula, and the data back him up. Fewer than 10 percent of families that follow his blueprint live in poverty, while 79 percent of those who don't follow the three-step plan end up poor.

The value of a high school education is undisputed. A lot of private and public-sector dollars are spent each year in an effort to ensure that each American child gets a diploma or an equivalent. However, the role of marriage in avoiding poverty is too often ignored by policy makers and low-income advocates, despite the growing mountain of research that underscores its economic benefits, particularly for women and children.

That huge oversight must be remedied. The John Edwards' "Two Americas" model of confronting poverty -- which laments income inequality, the exodus of manufacturing jobs and the increasing cost of a college education -- is outdated and incomplete. For example, although college costs are rising significantly, it's rarely mentioned that public and private financial aid is at an all-time high.

Compared to marriage, the "Two Americas" discussion and its solutions verge on irrelevancy when it comes to creating upward mobility for the poor. In "Marriage and Caste in America," Manhattan Institute scholar Kay S. Hymowitz cogently lays out a case that when it come to reducing poverty, economics and family structure can't be separated.

The impact of dual incomes, or the division of household labor, is self-evident. Less obvious is the extent of these economic benefits. Hymowitz points to an Ohio University study showing that the average net worth of a married couple increases 16 percent a year. After 15 years, their net worth is, on average, double that of divorced and single people.

For children, living in a married household is nearly synonymous with being poverty-free. Only 7 percent of married couples with children were living in poverty in 2003 according to the Census Bureau. Compare that with the 20 percent poverty rate of single-father families, and with the 35 percent rate for families headed by single mothers.

It's also financially advantageous for kids when their biological parents stay married. More than 90 percent of children in households earning $75,000 per year or more live with both parents. In households earning $15,000 or less, only 20 percent live in families with both parents present.

Money isn't the only advantage kids enjoy when their parents stay together. Educational achievement also skyrockets. Plenty of studies point this out. Hymowitz exposes the degree, citing a study by Cornell University professors Jennifer Gerner and Dean Lillard. After surveying 50 of the nation's top universities, they found that students from families headed by someone other than both parents were only half as likely to get into an elite school.

The most important finding in Hymowitz's book relates to the marriage gap between minorities and whites. She concludes that it poses a far greater threat to African-American and Latino children than does the academic achievement gap. In her view, academic equality can only be achieved after family structure parity is reached.

"You can improve schools all you want," Hymowitz told me. "But the future will belong to children who come home to two devoted parents, even if they are (relatively) uneducated."

That's a fact most minorities -- including me -- inherently know but have yet to discuss openly, and more importantly, act on. That failure of leadership needs to be corrected. Today is a good time to start.

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