Public Health in Oregon - Join The Conversation

I believe that a better-funded public education system would result in an increase in the overall health of a community. Given the state of our health care system at the moment, a good education is one of the most powerful tools a person can have. Here’s an example:

Suzy Student goes to exceptional schools with dedicated teachers and an environment that encourages scholastic achievement. This motivates her to apply for college after high school, and her good grades help get her into the college she wants. Because she was taught good study skills all through primary and secondary school, Suzy does very well in college and graduates with honors. After graduation, she gets a good-paying job with many benefits, including health insurance.

That’s just one scenario where a well-funded school system can give a person a better chance of achieving health. Multiply that by many students, and you have a healthier community. Having an education gives a person an edge and can help them avoid poverty, which is an indicator of poorer health status.

We also need a well-funded education system so our citizens are just plain better educated. I’ve heard estimates that the average reading level of adults can be as low as 4th grade. How are people to understand complicated health information or insurance policies if they can barely read the information?

Dr. Larry Wallack, dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs at PSU, recently spoke in one of my classes. He used notes from Richard Hofrichter to make this point about social justice and health: that we need to equalize life chances as a means to improve health status. In my opinion, a well-funded education system would do just that.

These are good points, Karla, and it should be obvious to more people that the funding of preventive health in a public school setting is beneficial for our kids’ health, both present and future.

But what about this question, putting aside for a moment, the issue of health services specifically:

Do better-funded public education systems result in an increase in the overall health of a community?

In other words, does the level of public education funding impact public health?

If the answer is yes, then public education is a public health issue.

Right?

Considering the fact that prevention is not only the most effective form of health care, but by far the cheapest and least painful, health education should be a top priority in our schools. Many, many studies have shown that it’s much easier to build a healthy habit from early childhood than to learn unhealthy habits first, then try to change them.  If we taught health in our schools and made the children’s health projects involve their families, most of the families would participate for the child’s project, and not one but many generations would be served at the same time.