by Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS)
Editor’s Note: IFS Senior Fellow Brad Wilcox gave the following testimony about the Success Sequence before the Ohio State Senate Education Committee Hearing on Senate Bill 156, which was held May 6, 2025.
The students of Ohio want to know how to succeed in life. The Success Sequence, indebted to research from the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), provides a simple framework for high schoolers with very clear steps for success in life. Research shows that young people who complete at least high school, work full-time, and get married before having kids have a 97% chance of avoiding poverty as they move into adulthood. They are also significantly less likely to experience family breakdown and emotional distress as adults. But it is not just poverty that students avoid.
