Senators must act now

Access to education

Regarding “Pasadena ISD will give failing students 6 weeks ‘to re-engage’ before ending their online classes”: (A3, Dec. 11) COVID-19 has placed unprecedented challenges on education, forcing many students in Pasadena and beyond to fall behind. As an undergraduate student, I have faced some of these difficulties firsthand as I finish my final year of college remotely from Houston. As the pandemic drags on, we can’t forget about the millions of out-of-school girls who face disproportionate barriers to education, a crisis exacerbated by COVID-19. Before the pandemic hit, 130 million girls worldwide lacked access to education, and UNESCO predicts that an additional 11.2 million girls are at risk of not returning to school due to the pandemic — that’s more than four times the population of Houston. When girls are cut off from schools, their risk of violence increases, they are less likely to ever return to school and more likely to be forced into child marriage.

Congress can help address this crisis with the bipartisan Keeping Girls in School Act, championed by Sen. John Boozman in neighboring Arkansas. The bill’s passage is dependent on support from the Senate, and Texans of all ages can help by joining me and UNICEF USA in urging Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn to pass the bill before the end of this 116th session of Congress. We must support the education of girls everywhere. Their future, and humanity’s as a whole, depends on it.

Kimberly Jimenez, UNICEF USA intern

and volunteer, Houston