"...the metrics-based relationship between levels of higher education and disaffection...."

You have no hard data for this -- that higher education and disaffection go together, as it were, especially in relation to Ct. Catholics (in the costal towns or cities) or Catholics anywhere, for that matter. Many educated Catholics (and well off) continue to send their children to Catholic institutions of learning -- secondary schools, Catholic colleges and universities. The biggest donors to these schools are super wealthy, educated Catholics with disposable incomes. Disaffection, however,  occurs at all class levels of the church, with 41% of the Nones, according to Pew, suggesting some might even return some day to the sacraments, under different circumstances. Pew, however, has never indicated to which income and educational bracket these ex-Catholics belonged. (And if they did, one wonders how reliable they would be considering the way citizens fibbed to pollsters in this last election.)