Collaborate to find the links between education policy and health.
When you look at a school, you may not think about health. But consider this: States with the highest levels of obesity are among those with the lowest levels of education spending. Two reports — Most States Still Funding Schools Less Than Before the Recession and The State of Obesity: Better Policies of a Healthier America — find that the worst two states for diminished educational investment, Oklahoma and Alabama, also rank among the top 10 states in obesity. Today, obesity is the leading preventable cause of disease in America (Levi et al., 2014), and public health officials are looking deeper into the causes of disease and differences in health with a focus on educational attainment.
Public health leaders believe there is a relationship between public education and public health. Limited educational attainment was recently presented as a major cause of disease at meetings of the Institute of Medicine. Prompted by findings that those who fail to complete high school die nine years sooner than those who finish college, public health experts conclude that limited educational attainment is a major cause of disease. The basic rationale is that graduation leads to better job opportunities, which drives income, leads to a better neighborhood residence, improved diet, less stress, better health care, and a longer life. A pivotal new study estimated that 245,000 U.S. deaths each year result from poor educational attainment. By contrast, heart attack is responsible for about 200,000 deaths annually (Galea et al., 2011).
What happens in school has a profound influence on our physical health, often in ways we might not realize. Health experts see a direct connection between the quality of schools, student educational attainment, and the diseases responsible for increased health care costs, lost workdays, and missed days at school. While health and education are big-ticket items in state and federal budgets, health and education advocates have not done a good job of joining forces to realize mutual goals. Closer partnerships between education and health researchers, policy makers, and advocates are needed.
Suggestions
How should health practitioners and educators collaborate to improve education outcomes? Early conversations have yielded the following suggestions for future collective action:
#1. Advocates can work together to describe the real costs of education inequities. Efforts to narrow gaps in reading, reduce class size, or help low-income children start school on par with their higher-income peers have an important influence on health outcomes. Public health policy makers need to be part of the conversation. They should articulate why these programs matter for children and what would be the long-term effects on the health of our nation with and without such investments. Doing so may help education funding gain much-needed traction, especially in an environment where health care spending is at an all-time high.
#2. Develop a common agenda that includes the perspectives of health experts, educators, and employers to improve job readiness and employment. Jobs are a common denominator for both fields. Clear steps for advocacy, program development, or research need to be articulated and prioritized.
Educators and public health practitioners would likely agree that childhood adversity — lack of sleep, nutrition, physical activity, safety, higher stress levels, and poor maternal and family health — represents significant challenges for children in the classroom while at the same time inhibiting their physical and emotional growth. However, we lack a coordinated approach to address these challenges. Efforts to integrate strategies, refer students to needed resources, and collaborate to achieve continuity of care are sorely needed.
There is no silver bullet for improving health care or education. But partnerships hold tremendous potential to bring measurable differences in the lives, health, and well-being of our citizens. Both sectors have a stake in shaping our children’s behaviors and norms; we cannot miss this opportunity to protect and care for our children. Indeed, education policy is health policy.
References
Galea, S., Tracy, M., Hoggatt, K., Dimaggio, C., & Karpati, A. (2011, August). Estimated deaths attributable to social factors in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 101 (8), 1456-65.
Leachman, M. & Mai, C. (2014, October 16). Most states still funding schools less than before the recession. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Levi, J., Segal, L., Laurent, R., & Rayburn, J. (2014). The state of obesity: Better policies for a healthier America 2014. Washington, DC: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. http://stateofobesity.org/files/stateofobesity2014.pdf
Citation: Karpyn, A. (2015). Backtalk: Education is the best medicine. Phi Delta Kappan, 97 (1), 48.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allison Karpyn
ALLISON KARPYN is associate director of the Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, and an associate professor of education and associate professor of behavioral health and nutrition at the University of Delaware, Newark, Del.
