Foundational public health education strengthens conditions for effective health policy

Institutions of higher education shape how individuals understand health, risk, and collective responsibility, yet foundational public health education remains largely absent from undergraduate general education in the United States. This omission persists despite high health care spending, poor population health outcomes, and growing challenges related to misinformation, inequities, and declining trust in public institutions. We argue that public health education should be understood as health policy infrastructure—an enabling condition for effective prevention, policy implementation, and population resilience—rather than as an optional curricular enhancement. Public health literacy equips individuals to evaluate evidence, interpret risk, and understand how social, environmental, and system‑level forces shape health outcomes. When these competencies are lacking, the consequences extend beyond individual decision‑making to undermine vaccination policy, complicate health system reform, weaken responses to climate‑related health threats, and limit progress in chronic disease prevention. Embedding foundational public health education within undergraduate core curricula represents a policy‑relevant investment in societal capacity, strengthening the conditions under which evidence‑based public health policy can succeed.