The Facts

Education for All

Education: The Missing Foundation of U.S. Global Development

In 2009, the United States Government seemed poised to follow through on both President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s strong statements during the 2008 Presidential campaign supporting increasing investments in global education. Yet as we approach the end of 2011, the U.S. has yet to take action to save the millions of children who will be condemned to poverty, exploitation, and a lifetime of vulnerability if education does not become a top U.S. priority. While the rhetoric from the current administration has been strong, there has not been strong commitment to a global education initiative, which signals an obvious and shameful neglect of global education in U.S. development and diplomacy efforts. This failure is evident in the fact that if nothing changes, there will be more kids out of school in 2015 than in 2008.

"Above all, we must do our part to see that all children have the basic right to learn. There is nothing more disappointing than a child denied the hope that comes with going to school, and there is nothing more dangerous than a child who is taught to distrust and then to destroy. That’s why the third commitment I’ll make is working to erase the global primary education gap by 2015. Every child — every boy, and every girl — should have the ability to go to school. To ensure that our nation does its part to meet that goal, we need to establish a two billion dollar Global Education Fund."

— Barack Obama, September 25, 2008
Clinton Global Initiative

POLICY FAILURE: The President broke his promise to the tens of millions of out of school children around the world: He did not launch a $2 billion Global Fund for Education in 2009 or 2010.

FUNDING FAILURE: In FY2011, the President’s budget request cut basic education spending by $82 million from the $925 million approved by Congress the previous year. In FY2012, yet again the President’s undercut the congressional leaders on Education for All and slashed basic education assistance by almost 20 percent (cutting $175 million) in his budget request. Even worse, despite committing to increase funding for the multilateral education partnership (the Fast Track Initiative) President Obama requested $0 for it.

“We also know that countries are more likely to prosper when they tap the talents of all their people. And that’s why we’re investing in the health, education and rights of women, and working to empower the next generation of women entrepreneurs and leaders. Because when mothers and 5 daughters have access to opportunity, that's when economies grow, that's when governance improves.”

— President Obama, September 2010
UN Millennium Development Goals Summit

The Next Step: A U.S. Education Initiative

Although President Obama has failed to live up to his commitment to provide leadership and new resources by establishing a Global Fund for Education, the United States has launched food, health, climate change, and child and maternal health initiatives that have helped galvanize international momentum and raise funding for the fight against poverty. As the administration nears the end of its first term, the clock is ticking for the U.S. to realize that its development objectives depend not just on healthy bodies and a healthy planet, but on healthy minds. Today’s youth can be a part of future solutions to poverty, war, and disease, but only if the U.S. has the foresight to increase its investments in basic education for the poor around the world — something that both the president and the secretary of state know. A U.S. education initiative should maximize all available channels for education aid by increasing U.S. bilateral support for basic education while scaling up multilateral support for education development in partnership with other governments. Congress must also support Education for All and ramp up support to achieve universal basic education. Now is the time to demonstrate that this issue transcends partisan politics and has the full support of Americans across the country.

“We know opening the doors of education to women and girls is not just the right thing to do; it is also the smart thing as well.”

— Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, May 2011
UNESCO Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education

Education for All Global Replenishment Campaign

The Fast Track Initiative (FTI) brings together civil society, private sector, donor governments, and 45 low-income countries to achieve the Education for All goals by developing and funding ambitious national education strategies. Over the past year, and in large part due to the calls for a Global Fund for Education, the FTI has taken huge strides to ensure that its EFA Fund is based on the principles that RESULTS activists have articulated: country-ownership, mutual accountability, transparency, aid effectiveness, and participatory governance.

In November 2011, all international education donors will convene to pledge new commitments to education as part of the replenishment campaign of the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative (FTI). The FTI partnership will be re-launching its Education for All Fund (a multilateral fund for education) and calling on all of its partners to increase funding for the FTI and through their bilateral education programs.. The FTI will be a vital mechanism to align and harmonize all aid flows to education and help fill the financing gap to ensure that the hardest-to-reach children are given the chance to attend school.

A U.S. contribution to the FTI replenishment will signal to donors around the world that Education for All is an international priority and that the world’s largest economy will finally get behind a global effort to achieve a breakthrough in basic education. Many developing countries who have applied for FTI funding in the past now face the prospect of huge resource gaps in their education plans — and will have to fire teachers, end scholarship programs, and stop building schools unless the replenishment is a success. It is now or never for the U.S. to commit new resources, support the FTI, and launch a global initiative to hit the 2015 targets.

“The United States remains committed to making the FTI a more effective vehicle for international cooperation to advance global education. To that end, we intend to increase funding for the FTI and to help advance a reform agenda to strengthen the governance of the initiative.”

— President Obama’s Global Development Strategy