May 2009: Write a letter to the editor urging U.S. leadership to create a Global Fund for Education

In sub-Saharan Africa, the evidence suggests that the current crisis will almost certainly have an adverse affect on enrollments and may even reverse recent progress toward the elusive goal of universal primary school completion.

— Averting a Global Crisis During the Global Downturn: Policy Options from the World Bank Human Development Network

Jean Pierre Nzamurambaho lives in Rwanda. In 2002, he dropped out of school in the middle of his third year when he was just 12 years old. “I decided to drop out because I was tired of being sent home because we couldn’t pay school fees. I spent two years doing domestic jobs, but I could not see any future for myself.” In 2004, Rwanda abolished primary school fees and Jean Pierre returned to his school and hopes to be a teacher. Like Jean Pierre, Seraphine, a young girl in Rwanda, had difficultly going to school before fees were abolished. “During my first year, I was always sent back home because of either school fees or uniform. Nowadays, teachers are no longer sending us back home, and even if I don’t put on uniform, I come and study freely. I only have to make sure I’m clean.” Seraphine now wants to become a nurse in the local health clinic.[1]

Though this is a difficult time, we can not break our Millennium Development Goal pledge to achieve Education for All by 2015 and give the 75 million primary-aged children not yet in school a chance to join Jean Pierre and Seraphine in dreaming about their futures and how they can give back to their communities and countries. Unfortunately, if patterns of past economic crises are indicative, the current economic downturn will compound this downward slide in funding and threaten the ability of millions of children to attend and stay in school. But more aid isn’t enough. We need smarter aid delivered through a new Global Fund for Education that increases global leadership, improves coordination, and creates new mechanisms to support the achievement of Education for All. During his campaign, President Obama pledged $2 billion toward the creation of a global education fund. Write a letter to the editor urging U.S. leadership to create a multilateral, multi-donor Global Fund for Education.

Sample Letter to the Editor

Engage	Though the financial crisis is incredibly difficult for towns across the U.S., imagine how hard it would be for families if our government were too poor or too unstable to provide free — or any — education. Tip: Connect to a local story or a personal experience on the global financial crisis and/or education.
Problem	For the 75 million primary-aged children in poor countries that are still not in school — and the many poor and vulnerable children in school but living on the brink — the global downturn is truly tragic. Tip: Incorporate information from this action sheet about the impact of the crisis on education, how donors are pulling-back on funding commitments, and how important education is for global development.
Inform about the Solution	The president pledged $2 billion for a new approach to the global education crisis during his campaign, and now more than ever, U.S. leadership is critical to catalyzing a global movement for education. President Obama should seize this special moment in history to boldly bring together both rich and poor countries in creating a new global funding mechanism to achieve Education for All.
Call to Action!	As a concerned citizen and (student/parent/teacher) who realizes how important education has been to my (life/children/country), I urge our members of Congress and President Obama to lead the world in creating a multilateral Global Fund for Education.

Instructions: 1) Follow your paper’s guidelines for letters to the editor. 2) Try to respond to a recent story. 3) Bring copies of your local paper to letter-writing meetings and/or have the letter-writing section of you paper’s website available during the meeting. 4) Include your address and phone number with your submission. Make your letter short (150–200 words) and to-the-point using the EPIC format (see sample letter above). Amplify its impact by sending a copy of your published letter to your members of Congress.

Why Must Education Be Prioritized?

All children have the right to an education regardless of their socio-economic status. Education is the keystone of long-term economic development and should be the foundation upon which U.S. economic assistance is built. Educated children are more likely to grow into healthy, productive adults who contribute economically and socially to their communities and countries, thereby building the stable, inclusive, and democratic countries U.S. foreign policy seeks to promote.

The failure to educate children has a real economic cost. On average, for a girl in a poor country, each additional year of education beyond grade three or four will lead to 20 percent higher wages and a 10 percent decrease in the risk of her own children dying of preventable causes. One analysis warns that in the 65 low, middle income, and transition countries that do not offer girls the same secondary school opportunities as boys, an estimated $92 billion in economic productivity is lost each year. This is nearly the same amount — $103.7 billion — that donor countries provided in foreign assistance in 2007.[2]

How Is the Financial Crisis Impacting Education for All?

A new World Bank report warns that poor children are likely to suffer the most from the financial crisis because their families are more likely to decrease spending on health, education, and other basic needs.[3] Just as poor families lose income they otherwise could spend on their children’s education, poor governments are facing dwindling funds in both national income and donor assistance. Fewer resources locally and nationally mean:

Fewer, if any countries, will eliminate primary school fees, and efforts to drop secondary school fees will stagnate;
There will be fewer resources to assist vulnerable children, such as girls, ethnic minorities, rural populations, children orphaned by AIDS, and those affected by conflict;
Education system resources will be stretched such that school maintenance and new construction will suffer;
Teachers salaries may not be paid, leading to absenteeism as teachers try to find ways to feed their families;
Fewer new students will enter and stay in school because parents need their help both in and outside of the home.

Are We Meeting Our Education for All Promise?

To achieve the Education for All goals[4] in low-income countries, the world needs an estimated $11 billion each year. Unfortunately, in 2007 (the latest year for which statistics are available), funding to low-income countries for basic education was only $2.6 billion. While $11 billion seems like a large number, consider that U.S.’ sales of ice cream and frozen desserts was nearly $23 billion in 2006.[5] Not only is the whole education funding pie too small, low-income countries receive too small a slice relative to their need. Although 80 percent of all out-of-school children live in these countries, they receive less than half of all education funding, and nearly one-third of all education resources specifically for basic education went to middle-income countries in 2007.[6] Donor funding for education increased rapidly between 2000 and 2004, but since then, total aid for basic education has declined by nearly 22 percent. Most donor governments have decreased spending, and other donors have not stepped up to fill this gap. While U.S. bilateral (country-to-country) funding has grown, the U.S. is not likely to meet its fair share of the global education need of $2 billion for fiscal year 2010.

What Should We Do to Put Us on Track to Achieve EFA by 2015?

Even before the global economic downturn, global coordination and funding for education was not on track to meet the Education for All goal by 2015. We need a new multilateral (many countries), multi-donor response — a new Global Fund for Education — to increase global funding commitments, coordination, transparency, and accountability to achieve universal access to basic education. During his campaign, President Barack Obama pledged $2 billion for a global education fund and to support then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s Education for All Act. Clinton reiterated Obama’s commitment in her Secretary of State confirmation hearing. President Obama and Secretary Clinton should galvanize the world to create a Global Fund for Education, and Congress must support this effort.

For more information on the Global Fund and Education for All and the Global Fund for Education, please see the April 2009 Action Sheet. To practice speaking about this issue to your editors, please review the April 2009 Laser Talk.

[1] UK Department For International Development (DFID). “Free education means a future for Rwanda’s children.” 15 October 2007. http://www.dfid.gov.uk/casestudies/files/africa/rwanda-schools.asp.

[2] Plan International. Paying the Price: The Economic Costs of Failing to Educate Girls. http://plan-international.org/files/global/publications/education/girls_education_economics.pdf.

[3] World Bank. Averting a Global Crisis During the Global Downturn.

[4] universal primary education, early childhood care and education, and literacy

[5] IDFA. Just the Facts: Ice Cream Sales and Trends. http://www.idfa.org/facts/icmonth/page2.cfm.

[6] UNESCO. Global Monitoring Report 2009; Aid Brief 2009: Recent Trends in Aid to Education.

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