When Education and Health Intersect

1. When Education and Health Intersect Presentation By: Dr. Reginald Weaver 15th Annual Summer Public Health Research Videoconference on Minority Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, June 9, 2009, www.minority.unc.edu

2. Direct Correlation Between Education & Health • The better educated a person is, the more likely that person is to report being in “excellent” or “very good” health.* • Persons with lower socio-economic status experience a lack of accessibility to quality education and healthcare resulting in poorer health, higher mortality, and diminished opportunity to participate in our democracy than do their more wealthy counterparts.   *Wirt, J., Choy, S., Rooney, P., Provasnik, S., Sen, A., and Tobin, R. (2004). The Condition of Education 2004 (NCES 2004-077). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.

3. “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane.” - Dr. Martin Luther King at the 2nd National Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights on March 25, 1966

4. Sobering Statistics Children in the United States Number of Percentage Number (2007) Children of Uninsured of Uninsured • All (ages birth through 18) 78.7 million 11.3% 8.9 million • Race/Ethnicity** • Hispanic 16.5 million 20.7 3.4 million • White 44.7 million 7.5 3.4 million • Black 11.6 million 12.8 1.5 million • Asian/Pacific Islander 3.3 million 11.6 379,000 • American Indian 546,000 18.9 103,000 • Other (multi-racial) 2.1 million 7.4 154,000 • Total 78.7 million 8.9 million Sources: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2008 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) to the Current Population Survey; and “Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines,” Federal Register, Vol. 73, No. 15 (January 23, 2008), pp. 3971-3972. Calculations by Children’s Defense Fund.

5. Sobering Statistics Largest Number of Poor ChildrenTop 10 States in 2007 • California 1,591,295 • Texas 1,512,819 • New York 844,424 • Florida 678,038 • Illinois 525,294 • Ohio 500,745 • Georgia 490,381 • Michigan 468,400 • Pennsylvania 446,832 • North Carolina 426,047 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2007 American Community Survey, Table B17001. Calculations by theChildren’s Defense Fund.

6. Sobering Statistics Largest Number of Uninsured Children Top 10 States in 2007 • Texas 1,454,000 • California 1,273,000 • Florida 816,000 • New York 410,000 • Georgia 325,000 • Illinois 305,000 • North Carolina 304,000 • Arizona 288,000 • New Jersey 273,000 • Pennsylvania 226,000 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2007 American Community Survey, Table B17001. Calculations by Children’s Defense Fund.

7. Poverty and Education Attainment • Poverty begins to affect the academic achievement of children in infancy. • Studies show childhood poverty to be highly correlated with poor performance in academics, lower IQ scores, and an increased risk of dropping out of school. Poverty also affects the level of education children attain. • One study found the IQ scores of children from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds were 25 points lower than their counterparts from privileged families. • Additionally, lower socio-economic status is associated with a lower rate of attendance and fewer years of school completed. Bradley, R.H., & Corwyn, R.F. (2002). Socioeconomic status and child development. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 371-399.

8. Disparities in Quality Education & Healthcare • Poorer health • High Mortality • Lack of Participation in our Democracy • Ethically Unacceptable • Moral Obligation

9. Risk Factors for Mothers of Low Socio-economic Status • Unplanned—and all-too-often unwanted— Pregnancies • Smoking and Alcohol Consumption Pregnancy • Inadequate Prenatal Care • Other Factors

10. Children with Emotional Disturbance Fail more courses, earn lower grade point averages, miss more days of school and are retained more often than other students with disabilities. Have the worst graduation rate of all disabilities; nationally, only 35% graduate from high school (compared to 76% for all students). Are twice as likely as students with other disabilities to become teenage mothers. School-to-Prison Pipeline Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Stopping the School-to-Prison Pipeline by Enforcing Special Education Law.” (http://www.splcenter.org/legal/schoolhouse.jsp).

11. Children with Emotional Disturbance Have alarmingly high drop-out rates – and 74% of those who drop out are arrested within five years. Are more than three times as likely as other students to be arrested before leaving school. Are twice as likely as students with other disabilities to be living in a correctional facility, halfway house, drug treatment center, or “on the street” after leaving school. School-to-Prison Pipeline Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Stopping the School-to-Prison Pipeline by Enforcing Special Education Law.” (http://www.splcenter.org/legal/schoolhouse.jsp).

12. School-to-Prison Pipeline • Black boys are four times as likely as their White peers to be incarcerated. • Black youths are almost five times and Latino youths are more than twice as likely to be incarcerated as White youths for drug offenses. • 580,000 Black males are serving sentences in state or federal prison, while fewer than 40,000 Black males earn a bachelor’s degree each year. Information from the Children Defense Fund’s “America’s Cradle to Prison Pipeline.” p. 37, (2007)

13. Why Should We Care? • Ethically Unacceptable • Moral Obligation • Human & Civil Rights Issue

14. Impact • Ethnic Minorities and Underserved Whites • The Economy • National Security

15. Future Outlook • As of February 2009, the United States has a total resident population of 306 million. • Outlook on 2010 Census. • The US Census projects that the population will increase to 439.1 million in 2050. • Population growth is fastest among minorities, and according to the United States Census Bureau's estimation for 2005, 45% of American children under the age of 5 are minorities.

16. What is our role? • In Creating The Issue • In Acknowledging The Issue • In Addressing and Resolving The Issue

17. Ethical and Moral Duty • All people have the right to adequate healthcare and a quality education. • Connectedness of Injustice • Multi-level Approach Powers, Madison and Ruth Faden. Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Social Policy. NY. Oxford, 2006, p. 50. Baylor, Barbara T. “Addressing Health Disparities and Health Inequities.” www.health-ministries.org.

18. FamiliesEducators/Academia Communities Community Leaders Churches Professionals Institutions and OrganizationsOther Key stakeholders Multi-level Approach to Fighting Inequities in Education and Health

19. When Education and Health Intersect Presentation By: Dr. Reginald Weaver