A cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of the impact of family structure as well as relationship satisfaction on child educational outcomes is carried out in this study, utilizing the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) data set, an African American data set. While negative impacts of family structure on child outcomes are well documented, there is controversy in the literature as to whether this is resource based or due to family structure itself. In the cross sectional analysis in which a probit regression is utilized, there is some evidence for the importance of marriage in the family structure regression, while relationship satisfaction is important in a regression that includes a married and cohabiting sample. There is unambiguous longitudinal evidence of the importance of marital quality, measured by relationship satisfaction, in promoting positive child educational outcomes. However, there is no evidence that marriage matters in the fixed effects estimation utilized in analyzing the impact of family structure on child educational outcomes longitudinally. This may be due to the lack of sufficient variability in the outcome variables. Variables measuring parental time resources are of paramount importance in all specifications.