State ends Marriage Initiative as part of budget cuts

Citing budget cuts, state officials are ending the controversial Oklahoma Marriage Initiative, a 17-year-old program originally aimed at reducing the state’s high divorce rate.

The state Department of Human Services announced it is eliminating its funding for the program because the agency is facing a budget shortfall of more than $100 million this fiscal year. It is implementing $45 million in cuts that include slashing 91 positions and reducing several public-assistance programs and will seek supplementary funding to help fill the remaining gap.

The state has spent more than $70 million in federal discretionary Temporary Assistance to Needy Families money on the Marriage Initiative since the program began under Gov. Frank Keating in 1999. It provided counseling, workshops and other support services for thousands of Oklahomans with the goal of reducing the rate of divorce as a way to combat poverty. In 2002, initiative leaders abandoned the goal of reducing divorce rates, saying it was unattainable, and the program’s purpose began shifting to encouraging healthy marriages and families.

Still, the initiative drew scrutiny as Oklahoma’s rates of divorce, unmarried cohabitation and single-parent families increased while the percentage of households with married couples declined. These reflected national trends. The state’s poverty rate also rose, although it slipped in 2013 and 2014, while remaining above the national rate.

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