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/ Global Action
September 2011
Back to School Assignment — Write a Letter to the Editor:
Obama Must Commit to the Global Partnership for Education
“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, Address to the Clinton Global Initiative September 25, 2008
In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama committed to achieving Education For All, underscoring his commitment by pledging $2 billion for a global education fund to accelerate progress towards Education For All.Unfortunately, President Obama has yet to make global education a development priority and has said nothing further abouta global education fund.
This fall, nearly 35 million elementary school children in the U.S. will pack their bags to go back to school. But around the world, nearly double that number — 67 million — won’t go to school at all this year — and most of these children are girls. Unless more effective policies are implemented and supported, 72 million children may still be out of school by 2015 — more than when President Obama made his pledge in 2008. Millions more children will receive a poor-quality education and not learn to read, write, or count. There is no single development intervention that can so radically and comprehensively change the trajectory of a child’s life — and future generations — as education.[1]
President Obama can turn his words into action and change lives by committing funding to the Global Partnership for Education (formerly the Fast Track Initiative, or FTI). The Global Partnership will have its first-ever replenishment conference November 6–8. It is the only multilateral global partnership focused on ensuring all children have access to a quality education.
Helpbuild support by writing a letter to the editor in support of the Global Partnership for Education.
Sample Letter to the Editor
Instructions: Follow the guidelines for letters to the editor provided by your local papers. Always include your address and phone number with your submission. Make your letter short (150–250 words) and to-the-point using the EPIC format (see sample letter below). To write a letter through the RESULTS website, go to If your letter gets published, amplify its impact by sending a copy of your published letter to your members of Congress and send it to Blair Hinderliter, RESULTS/REF communications director: .
Engage / Back to school is an exciting time, but 67 million kids around the world will never go to school this year. Even more will be forced to drop out. It saddens me that a woman in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than finish high school, and a girl born in Chad is only 10 percent more likely to learn how to read than she is to die before she turns five years old.Problem / Despite strong rhetoric, President Obama has never fulfilled the promise he made as a candidate to achieve Education For All by supporting a global education fund. Unless more effective policies are implemented and supported, 72 million children may still be out of school by 2015 — more than when Obama made his pledge in 2008.
Inform about the solution / The Global Partnership for Education aims to ensure that all children receive a quality basic education. To date, it has supported 45 low-income countries, including Afghanistan and 24 African countries. It delivers real results to get the most disadvantaged children into school and make sure they have the resources needed to learn, and also ensures that developing countries do their part for their children.
Call to action! / The president should attend the Partnership’s November funding conference and make a make a three-year, $375 million pledge — just 15 percent of the total needed. It’s finally time for him to make good on his promise.
The Global Partnership for Education
There is no single development intervention that can so radically and comprehensively change the trajectory of a child’s life — and future generations — as education.[2]But children, especially, girls aren’t getting to school and learning. USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah starkly highlighted our global failure to help girls: A woman in South Sudan is more likely to die in childbirth than finish high school. A girl born in Chad is only 10 percent more likely to learn how to read than she is to die before she turns five years old.
The Global Partnership for Education (formally known as the Fast Track Initiative)supports global Education For All. Developing and donor countries, multilateral agencies and banks, private foundations and corporations, and civil society all work together to accelerate progress towards ensuring all children have access to a quality education. The Partnership is real bang for our buck — it reduces overhead and coordinates aid so it effectively reaches kids in need.
Since 2002, the Global Partnership has changed the lives of children in 45 countries, including Afghanistan and 24 African countries. Global Partnership-supported countries have better school completion rates, equity for girls, and ensuring governments in developing countriesgive more of their GDP to help educate their own children. Yet the Partnership receives more requests for funding than it can fulfill.
For every additional $1 million invested in the Partnership:
- 74 new classrooms will be constructed, or
- 8,000 more children will enter primary school, or
- 500,000 textbooks will be distributed, or
- 1,000 teachers will receive a year of training
November Replenishment Conference
This November, the Partnership is asking donors to attend its first-ever replenishment conference. Civil society around the U.S. is urging the U.S. government to make a three-year, $375 million pledge — just 15 percent of the $2.5 billion the Global Partnership needs to meet new funding requests by poor countries. The United States has never contributed to the Global Partnership; tiny Romania gives more than the U.S.. Every year the Partnership is not able to fund national education plans is another generation of children who will be left behind, perhaps permanently.We risk having more kids out of school in 2015 than today, which is unacceptable. The world will be looking to the U.S. in November to see if we finally stand up in partnership with other donor and developing country partners, or if we will continue to sit on the sidelines and refuse to commit urgently needed support to this important multilateral Education For All initiative.
For more information:
[1]Educating girls has been shown to reduce their risk of HIV/AIDS, improve the health of women and their children, alleviate extreme poverty, delay early marriage, reduce female genital cutting, and increase girls’ self-confidence and decision-making power. On average, for a girl in a poor country, each additional year of education beyond grades 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. Women with six or more years of education are more likely to seek prenatal care, assisted childbirth, and postnatal care, reducing the risk of maternal and child mortality and illness. Educating women of reproductive age is credited with reducing child mortality by an astonishing 50 percent since 1970. Click for more powerful facts:
[2]Educating girls has been shown to reduce their risk of HIV/AIDS, improve the health of women and their children, alleviate extreme poverty, delay early marriage, reduce female genital cutting, and increase girls’ self-confidence and decision-making power. On average, for a girl in a poor country, each additional year of education beyond grades 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. Women with six or more years of education are more likely to seek prenatal care, assisted childbirth, and postnatal care, reducing the risk of maternal and child mortality and illness. Educating women of reproductive age is credited with reducing child mortality by an astonishing 50 percent since 1970.