For safety’s sake, America, help fund Global Partnership for Education
You had to feel for the elementary school teacher in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, who was trying to teach a classroom of 200 second-graders, some squeezed five to a desk.
And for the little boy trying to show a group of American visitors he could read aloud with his classmates, but whose index finger hovered over just one word as those of his deskmates traced the sentence.
And for the teacher who stood before a chalkboard in an outside courtyard, instructing a class of about 700 sixth-graders.
How could children possibly learn in such conditions? Truth is, a lot of them don’t.
For while the U.S. and other nations are doing much to help the world’s poorest countries educate their children, much more needs to be done.
The question of what the U.S. will do will be called Feb. 8, when the Global Partnership for Education convenes in Senegal to tally the pledges of high-income nations, hoping to hit a goal of $3.1 billion over three years.
But Washington is sending mixed messages. President Trump wants to limit engagement abroad and in the spring, his “America First” budget proposed a 31 percent cut for USAID, the main government agency that delivers foreign aid. Thankfully, both the House and Senate have rejected his plan, though they’ve not yet reconciled their budgets.
I know what you’re thinking. Why should we care about educating kids on a continent so far away?
We should care not just for moral reasons, though it seems inhumane to deny a child an education that could lead him or her out of poverty. But more importantly, it’s in our nation’s self-interest to improve the lot of children in struggling, unstable countries.
Consider what United Nations Secretary Nikki Haley said in late October after visiting children displaced by conflicts in three African countries: “Those kids will be 18 one day. They will be an uneducated adult with no social skills that will have resented the fact that they were put in that situation — and that’s dangerous for the United States and that’s dangerous for the world.”
Or what former President George W. Bush said in a recent interview: “One of the underlying themes of 9/11 was that conditions elsewhere matter to our national security. Therefore, we have to worry about stability … Part of that means a foreign aid component. Our military would tell you that good diplomacy makes their job easier.”
Or what Thomas Waldhauser, the head of United States Africa Command, told Congress in the spring: “We have got to find a way to get at education, health care, hopelessness, livelihood, and the like (because) we cannot kill our way to victory here.”
Still, many Americans think we spend too much money on foreign aid, though it accounts for just 1.3 percent of the federal budget, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. About a third goes to help allies — like Israel — with military aid. -Haji Ngatumbura Sixteen percent helps countries facing humanitarian crises, like famine or earthquakes. Eleven percent goes for political aid, like promoting democracy or justice system reforms. And 38 percent goes to promote health, education and development projects in low-income countries.
No one nation can save the world, of that, there is no doubt. But there’s power in numbers. And about 20 years ago, three multi-national efforts emerged to become gamechangers in global health and education.
The first is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which says its programs have saved 22 million lives since 2002. Because of the Global Fund and other programs, just over half the people in the world who are HIV positive now have access to antiretroviral drugs, which can turn a life sentence into a chronic disease. Still, a huge number have not been reached, which would make any retreat devastating.
The second is Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, which is helping vaccinate children in poor countries against deadly diseases. Before Gavi, pharmaceutical companies didn’t see a market in developing nations. But by pooling resources, Gavi became a big new customer. And since its inception in 2000, it says it has helped prevent more than 9 million children from dying of diarrhea, pneumonia, yellow fever and other diseases.
Of the three, the Global Partnership for Education is the least well known, though its ambitions are equally important. Its model requires low-income countries to commit 20 percent of their national budgets to education. It also sets goals for attendance — including for girls — and wants proof that students are actually learning, starting with the three Rs. Its structure gives low-income countries a seat at the governance table and liberties in framing their educational approach.
Leaders of the Global Partnership are asking the U.S. to make a three-year pledge of $337.5 million — starting with $87.5 million in 2018, and $125 million each of the next two years. So you know, the United Kingdom, which already contributes more than us, is being asked to pledge $500 million.
Making a three-year pledge for global education would break new ground, though we’ve made such pledges for global health. But during the Obama administration, the money was found annually, with $50 million in 2015, $70 million in 2016 and $75 million this year.
At the moment, the House budget would fully fund the partnership’s first-year request of $87.5 million, but the Senate is holding steady at $75 million.
But there’s been no signal from the White House.
Amid the noise about health care, the tax bill and the Russia investigation, advocates are trying to call attention to the importance of global education. They’ve gotten people to write letters to newspapers and call their members of Congress. The antipoverty organization, RESULTS Educational Fund, also invited five opinion writers, including me, to visit Tanzania in August to see what’s happening on the ground.
Advocates also are pushing a resolution meant to show that Congress supports funding the Global Partnership. In the House, that resolution has 83 co-sponsors, including Florida Republicans Dennis Ross, Tom Rooney, Gus Bilirakis and Carlos Curbelo. It’s also been signed by Florida Democrats Darren Soto, Frederica Wilson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Kathy Castor and Charlie Crist. In the Senate, Democrat Cory Booker sponsored the resolution and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio co-sponsored it.
Rubio is strong in his support of global education. This year he also helped reintroduce the READ act, which says it’s U.S. policy to expand access to a quality education in partner countries and requires the president to create a strategy for carrying it out. Advocates had been pushing the bill for 13 years, but once Hurricane Harvey relief dollars were attached to it, it passed both chambers on a voice vote. And President Trump signed it into law.
Coincidentally, Mark Green, the new administrator of USAID, is a former ambassador to Tanzania. So he’s familiar with what I saw on my trip there. I saw: • Little kids walking four and five miles to go to school.
• Overcrowded classrooms, insufficient toilets and too few teaching materials.
• Low-paid teachers trying their best, but struggling with a new curriculum meant to ensure accountability.
• Children going to school hungry, or unable to go to school because they couldn’t afford uniforms.
• People far smaller than they should be, a condition called “stunting” caused by a lack of proper nutrition in early childhood that can hold them back throughout life.
• A country where 64 percent of the population is under age 24 and the average woman has five children. Africa’s population is exploding. It’s projected to have half the world’s population by 2050.
• Widespread poverty. Over 46 percent of Tanzania’s population lives on under $1.90 per day. The Global Partnership says that if all students in low-income countries finished school with basic reading skills, global poverty levels would drop by 12 percent.
“We need the superpowers to help. We are so poor,” said Haji Ngatumbura, a member of the parent-teacher organization at his daughter’s school in Morogoro, Tanzania.
“A broken car is always pulled with a strong car. And with your help, we will be pulled in the right direction.”
Let me leave you with what some children said when asked what they think of, when they think of America. “Whites,” said one. “War,” said another. And President Trump? “He leads,” said one. “He’s big,” said another. “Trump loves kids,” said another.
Let’s hope the president loves kids — all the world’s kids — enough to give them a shot at a good life, which starts with a good education.