Here’s another reason to prefer degree programs over short-term training. Researchers from Princeton University who study mortality say that Americans who have earned a bachelor’s degree live longer than those with only a high school diploma. The researchers studied the impact of educational attainment on mortality between 1992 and 2021.
Their findings suggest that post-secondary education has both a direct and indirect protective effect on the individual. They suggest that those with “some college, no degree” have mortality rates that look more like individuals with high school diplomas and less like those with bachelor’s degrees.
In part, the research suggests that those with higher levels of educational attainment experienced lower levels of mortality between the ages of 25 and 85. Further the “mortality gap” between high school graduates and college graduates increased substantially between 2010 and 2019, a period of unprecedented economic growth and stability. Additionally, the researchers found that the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased the mortality gap between these two groups, with the largest mortality increases being found among those with lower levels of educational attainment.
The effect of education on mortality cannot simply be attributed to better health insurance and better access to healthcare that goes along with higher-paying jobs. While that certainly plays a role, researchers found that the higher earnings attributed to higher education also enabled greater earnings; better working and living conditions; better access to healthier foods; more stable marriages; and improved ability to relocate for work.
Conversely, those with lower educational attainment experienced higher rates of death related to drug overdoses; alcohol-related diseases, suicide, cancer, heart disease, respiratory diseases, and diabetes. The authors term these “deaths of despair.”
Low educational attainment correlates with deaths from certain causes
Without doubt, these deaths of despair occurred in each cohort, but at much different rates. For example, in 1992, the rate of death attributed to a despair factor among those with four-year degrees was 26 per 100,000 people. Among those with high school diplomas, the rate of these deaths was 43 per 100,000 people. By 2019 (just prior to the pandemic) the rate of deaths of despair among those with four-year degrees had increased modestly to 29 per 100,000 people. In comparison, the rate of deaths of despair among those with high school diplomas had increased to 95 per 100,000 people. In other words, the mortality rate among those with high school diplomas had more than doubled, while the mortality rate among those with four-year degrees increased 11.5%.
From a public policy standpoint, it makes sense to encourage the highest possible level of post-secondary educational attainment. Lower mortality rates, lower healthcare costs, better economic mobility, and better economic and community development are all reasons to promote higher education.
WCC’s love affair with non-degree certificates does not seem to serve the long-term interests of either individual workers or Washtenaw County as a whole. Promoting short-term training in place of authentic education seems like a losing strategy for everyone.
Photo Credit: darosenbauer, via Flickr
