Every year, nearly 750,000 Georgians get divorced. A recent report on the taxpayer costs of divorce and unwed childbearing estimated the cost to taxpayers of family breakdown in Georgia exceeds nearly $1.46 billion a year. The Georgia Supreme Court is fighting back by sponsoring a dozen billboards around the state that urge residents to “Get Married, Stay Married.” The billboard space was donated by the Outdoor Advertising Association of Georgia, and the billboards were paid for by the Georgia Bar Foundation. Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears co-chairs the court’s Commission on Children, Marriage and Family Law, which put on a two-day marriage conference recently. “Accepting divorce and unmarried childbearing as inevitable means giving up on many of our children,” Sears said on her Web site. “Georgia’s children deserve far better than that. We can make a difference for this generation, and the next.”
