Week 5

     This week in Urban Public Issues we discussed the relationship between different aspects of a community.  We created a web diagram displaying how each factor affected the other.  Education seemed to be one of the most important as it greatly affected the others.  A good education leads to a good career, which in turn pays a good salary, and the job or income can put a person in a good location.  A good location minimizes crime.  Good careers typically have benefits which lead to better health.  A lot of people do not have the opportunities to reach higher education so they may resort to crime or dead end jobs.  This cycle of being raised poor and struggling to get out of that is the vicious cycle.  With the advancement of technology and increased demand for highly trained professionals, it seems the cycle is getting harder and harder to escape.

     The effect of education on crime are given in a brief study synopsis here.  The site says graduating high school reduces the possibility of being incarcerated by .76 percentage points for caucasians and 3.4 percentage points for African Americans.  Staying with education at least through high school graduation keeps people off the streets and provides a better future. So why would someone ever drop out?  I have never understood this unless extreme circumstances force a person to leave school to go straight into work to provide for a family.  The motive for a normal teenager to leave school is a mystery to me.

     Another interesting study is the relationship between education and health by the National Poverty Center.  The study found that over time, life expectancy seems to be higher for those who went to college compared to those who did not.
                                  
The picture shown above is from the cited site above. As  you can see, education really does seem to have a direct impact on our health.




Mark Harner