Opinion: Mobilizing US funding for quality education must be a priority

Calls to prioritize access to education in some of the world’s most under-resourced and crisis-affected countries were at an all-time high 25 years ago when a movement called the Global Campaign for Education was founded in the lead-up to the World Education Forum in Dakar. In the years since, celebrities such as Shakira and political heavyweights such as Gordon Brown became vocal advocates for every child’s right to achieve an education. Yet that momentum has waned under the pressures of competing priorities, the still-lingering impact of a global pandemic, and the complexities of protracted and emerging conflicts. Now is the time for new and targeted actions to rebuild the political commitment necessary to address this global challenge. We are currently witnessing a crisis in global education with 250 million children and youth out of school and 40% of primary school-age children lacking basic reading skills. Efforts to reach Sustainable Development Goal 4 — “ensuring inclusive, equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all” — are stymied by a $97 billion annual funding gap that prevents low- and lower-middle-income countries from investing in these critical programs. The results are devastating. Children and youth are missing out on the opportunity to gain fundamental skills that are necessary to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. In addition, record levels of forced displacement have only added to the growing number of our world’s children who are missing out on their education. A failure to invest in the very people who ultimately will drive economic growth, rise to leadership positions, and pave the way for future generations will leave our world in a place worse off than we found it. A similar pattern of limited resources and gaps in political leadership is unfolding here in the United States. Those of us who have advocated on behalf of the right to an education in recent years have worked hand-in-hand with legendary figures such as former Rep. Nita Lowey who consistently stood up for a child’s right to an education. Rep. Lowey encouraged her colleagues to invest in global education programs as the first chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations. The International Basic Education Account in the annual State & Foreign Operations Appropriations bill was officially renamed the Nita M. Lowey Basic Education Fund, recognizing the outsized role that Rep. Lowey played in championing this cause. Since leaving Congress in 2021, other members of Congress have lent their support for global education efforts, yet no one has taken on Rep. Lowey’s role of fierce advocate, a necessary ingredient in these difficult political and fiscal times. “While attention spans are short and priorities fluctuate, the importance of ensuring that every child has access to a quality education remains the same.” --— U.S. funding for global education steadily increased over the past several years reaching an all-time high of $970 million in fiscal year 2023. Yet, more recently, the U.S. government has decreased funding for global education programs due to fiscal austerity measures approved by Congress and supported by the administration. The fiscal year 2024 appropriation dropped to $922 million and then Congress passed, and the President signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which placed caps on federal spending. In March 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden released his FY25 budget request which included only $627.1 million for global education. Soon after, the House of Representatives included $922 million in its FY25 State & Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, and in late July the Senate released its FY25 allocation of only $640.5 million. At this moment, gathering and mobilizing a cadre of advocates from organizations that utilize U.S. government funding to deliver a quality education to young people around the world must be a priority. Individual constituents who have witnessed the impact an education can have in their own lives must be armed with the tools to articulate their support for these programs to their policymakers. Only by clearly conveying the tremendous impact of these programs can we cultivate a new generation of champions on Capitol Hill who understand the importance of investing in global education programs. In turn, this renewed effort will be the catalyst for change that we need. While attention spans are short and priorities fluctuate, the importance of ensuring that every child has access to a quality education remains the same. Trade-offs between investments in these programs and others are no longer acceptable. Rather, we need sustained support to protect the progress that has been made and to provide the kind of hope that only an education offers.