From Funding to Flourishing

This infographic visualizes public school funding as a structural determinant of health, with a specific focus on California counties. In addition to school funding adequacy, the visualization also includes data on reading scores, healthy days, and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) Health Groups. Illustrating the connection between these measures highlights how policies and people in power, such as those responsible for school funding, influence social determinants of health like education access and achievement. 

The visual format is inspired by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute Model of Health and the California golden poppy. Data on school funding equity– the featured structural determinant of health– are represented as roots beneath the surface, which underlie and drive community conditions like education, and ultimately allow for a population's health to “flourish.” In addition to this data-driven illustration, supplemental scatterplots and maps reinforce the association between school funding adequacy, reading scores, and health outcomes, and more broadly, the connection between power, education, and community health.