Connecting Education, Welfare, and Health for American Families

• Published in: Peabody journal of education 2015-10, Vol.90 (5), p.659-676
• Main Authors: Cooper, Bruce S., Mulvey, Janet D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Academic Failure; Access; Access to Education; Access to Health Care; Achievement Gap; Antipoverty programs; Attainment; Barriers; Brain Hemisphere Functions; Childhood; Cognition; Cognitive Development; Constraints; Correlation; Education; Educational Change; Educational Opportunities; Educational Quality; Families & family life; Family (Sociological Unit); Health; Health education; Independence; Institutionalized Persons; Living Standards; Mental Disorders; Mental health services; Physical Health; Poverty; Quality of care; Social Mobility; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Stability; Statistical Data; Statistics; Upward mobility; Welfare; Young Children
• ISSN: 0161-956X; 1532-7930
• DOI: 10.1080/0161956X.2015.1087776

The relationship of education to social mobility, health, and socioeconomic stability is examined in this study. The central question is: how do educational access and attainment reduce poverty and increase social immersion in a system that affords opportunity for quality health care and economic prosperity? An historic perspective, related and compared to current conditions for those who live at or below the poverty line, highlights the extreme difficulties of overcoming the barriers that separate people from consistent quality education, access to quality health care, and the opportunity to move toward economic independence. The latest statistics showing the significance of socioeconomic status (SES) to cognitive development, educational achievement, healthy living, and social mobility are factors that have and continue to affect large portions of America's poor. The increase of early childhood programs is a beneficial first step in closing the achievement gap, but the physical and mental health problems plaguing the poor must be addressed if we are to reduce the poverty rate and improve educational opportunities for all children.