Check out this post from Desmond Serrette from the US Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education, of which ONE is a major partner:

I’m happy to announce the December 10th National Day of Action when we are calling on those who understand the important role that education plays in the health, safety and economic security of the world’s children to take action and let President Obama know we support his call for a fully endowed Global Fund for Education.

There are nearly 75 million children across the globe unable to attend primary school this year. Children are blocked out of classroom doors by high schooling fees, long distances to travel to the nearest school, and an insufficient number of teachers, to name a few.

Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This statement is especially powerful when one explores the impact that education plays in helping solve so many of the world’s problems. Simply put: Education Saves Lives, Reduces Poverty and Makes a Safer World.

You don’t have to wait until December 10th:

You can sign a petition right now urging President Obama to support a Global Fund for Education to ensure a quality education for all the world’s children.

Did you know:

• In Africa, 5 million children each year die before their 5th birthday, yet children of mothers with just a few years of primary education are 40% more likely to survive into adulthood
• Providing mothers with basic education is more effective than food aid in ending childhood malnutrition
• An estimated 700,000 cases of HIV/AIDS could be prevented each year in Africa alone, if all children received a primary education
• Education is by far the best predictor of democratic attitudes in a country; more education corresponds directly to more democratic attitudes

There is an answer: In September 2008, then candidate Barack Obama pledged to lead the world in creating and endowing a Global Fund for Education. A Global Fund could ensure that the global education deficit is tackled with sufficient resources and political resolve to put in every child in school. Just as the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria has worked together to raise billions of dollars and saved over 3.5 million lives, a Global Fund for Education would provide enough resources so the lives of the poor can be better lived – in health, security, hope and prosperity.

Let President Obama know right now that you support a fully endowed Global Fund for Education. Together, we can lead the way in providing a healthier global society, a safer planet, and a world in which living on less than a dollar a day is no longer a reality for anyone. Thank you!

Hello, I’m Christina Holder, a ONE member from Augusta, Georgia, currently working as a Uriel and Caroline Bauer Human Rights Law Fellow in Lusaka, Zambia, where I promote human rights-based approaches to development. My education has enabled me to understand and transform some of the root causes of social injustice. I believe every individual deserves the opportunities education creates.

That’s why I sent my personal story to The Big Read, a movement to secure $2 billion for a Global Fund for Education. I would be honored if your name, and the names of tens of thousands of ONE members, would accompany my story when ONE and the Global Campaign for Education deliver it to President Obama in June.

With the book and our signatures, ONE will include this inscription:

Please ensure all children have access to quality basic education by making a U.S. contribution of $2 billion to a Global Fund for Education.

To add your name to the book, please click this link:

http://www.one.org/us/bigreadpetition/o.pl

I’ve spent eight months in Zambia, and have realized that quality education is the key to lifting individuals, and the nation, out of poverty. After learning how to read themselves, women I work with from Lusaka’s Garden Compound pooled their resources to open a “community school” so their children could learn to read and write, too. At Mother Teresa Hospice and Community School, where I volunteer each Friday afternoon, some of the adult residents volunteer to teach children reading and math.

Without the opportunity to attend school, these children risk becoming child laborers in local industries such as stone-crushing — pounding big rocks into gravel for sale to builders. But slowly, regular Zambians are laying the foundation for every child to enjoy the right to quality education, a prerequisite for ending poverty.

By adding your name to The Big Read and encouraging our government to support a Global Fund for Education, we can help Zambia and other countries finance high-quality education for even the most impoverished students.

Please sign The Big Read now, for all those who can’t:

http://www.one.org/us/bigreadpetition/o.pl

Thanks so much!

Christina Holder, ONE Member, Augusta, Georgia

On Monday, the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) launched its annual Global Action Week, seven days of advocacy to raise awareness around education and encourage governments to follow through on their commitments to put 75 million children in school by 2015.

Here in Washington, GCE kicked off the week with a roundtable discussion on the state of global education and the potential for a new U.S. investment. The guest of honor was Queen Rania of Jordan, a longtime advocate for education in her home country and around the world. Queen Rania began the conversation with a timely topic: economic growth. Education, she pointed out, is central to fueling national economies and raising incomes at the family level. And as a critical input into health, gender empowerment and democracy, education is one of the highest-yield investments we can make into families and communities, especially in the world’s poorest countries. With the global financial crisis in full swing and threatening to hit poorest countries the hardest, the time is riper than ever for a bold new initiative to get every child in school.

Queen Rania was backed up by three powerful education advocates here in the U.S.: Congressional champion Representative Nita Lowey and two experts who are now serving in the Administration – Gene Sperling (who is Council to the Secretary of the Treasury) and Gayle Smith (Senior Director for Relief, Stabilization and Development and Senior Advisor to the President on the National Security Council).

Rep. Lowey spoke first, saying that the “stars are aligned” for achieving the education for all. She noted that U.S. funding for basic education has increased seven-fold since 2001 (thanks largely to her leadership on the House Appropriations Committee), an impressive scale-up but still a far cry from the U.S.’s fair share of the $11 billion price tag for meeting the Education for All goals. Rep. Lowey pointed out that strong congressional leadership is now paired with clear support from the Administration, a reference to President Obama’s commitment to contribute $2 billion to a Global Education Fund. As a result, she said, the constituency for global education has never been stronger. Gayle Smith also spoke on President Obama’s commitment to education, saying that the President remains committed to his campaign promise and that she was hopeful that “in the not-too-distant future,” he will make an announcement on the establishment of a robust, sustainable Global Fund for Education.

This discussion couldn’t have been more timely- details on President’s Obama’s budget request will be coming out in the next couple weeks. ONE and other advocates are hoping that they contain a strong boost for global education spending to indicate the Administration’s intent to fulfill its commitment to a Global Fund for Education. An investment in education by the U.S. in FY10 will ensure that any initiative in the “not-too-distant future” will have the resources it needs to be successful.

Gene Sperling (former head of the Center for Universal Education) ended the panel by outlining a few trade-offs that global policy makers cannot afford to make when it comes to education- access vs. quality, donor funding through bilateral vs. multilateral channels, and a focus on primary education (5 years) vs. eight years of basic education. He also said it was time for global leaders to step up their efforts to supporting education in countries in conflict and transition, noting that just as a dollar invested in girls’ education is one of the best-spent dollars in the world, so is a dollar invested in education for children of conflict.

To drive this point home, Sperling quoted a passage from What is the What by Dave Eggers, one of my favorite books. The scene takes place in a school in a refugee camp in the midst of the Sudanese civil war. A group of boys are writing lessons in the dirt. Their teacher looks over their work and attempts to convey to them the magnitude of what they’re doing, saying:

Many of you no longer have mothers. You have lost your fathers. Here, if you are smart enough to accept it, you will be educated. Education will be your mother. Education will be your father. While your older brothers fight this war with guns, when the bullets stop, you will fight the next war with your pens.

Stay tuned here on the ONE blog for other things going on around the Global Action Week and how you can get involved.

-Nora Coghlan

It’s Global Education week – and ONE is partnering with the Global Campaign for Education to push for action on the Education for All Act – legislation that would extend access to education to the 72 million children with no access to even basic education around the world.

Right now, the legislation has 66 co-sponsors in the House, but we need many more if we want to ensure that it’ll pass when it comes up for a vote later this year.

Please take a moment to urge your member of Congress to co-sponsor this critical bill.

So afters weeks of anticipation the Global Campaign for Education Action Week is drawing to a close. I want to salute the thousands of educators and students who have already participated in the World’s Biggest Lesson in 48 of the 50 states.

During my time in the US for GCE Action Week I also had the privilege to meet and spend time with some of the smartest and dedicated young people in the United States. More than 50 high school and college students came from around the country to learn about why education saves lives and about the Education For All Act of 2007. I was so impressed by watching these articulate youngsters come together for this cause and asking the “older people” some really smart questions about the sort of arguments they hear about why the US should not give financing for education overseas.

The big Congress day arrived and the buzz was infectious. The youngsters took the bull by the horns and met with 75 representatives and senators in a frenzy of 100 meetings running between the Senate and the House and back again. In the middle of it all, they participated in a press conference with the impressive Honorary Chairperson for GCE Action Week Shakira and Congresswoman Nita Lowey. However, it was the youngsters coming from 12 different organizations including a large delegation from the ONE Campaign who really made me proud. They were sharp and passionate. I felt for the first time in a few years the US might just take the leadership on Education for All in the coming years with activists such as these.

-Anne-Marie Mujica, GCE international secretariat