Taking the Long View

A couple weeks ago I wrote about the Education For All of 2011 (H.R. 2705) and last week I wrote about national security. If this bill becomes law AND the United States makes a firm commitment to funding it AND appropriates sufficient funding to meet that commitment AND the U.S. Administration carries out the goals of the bill, this bill would be a seismic improvement in international development and consequently U.S. security.

Hyperbole? I don’t think so. Providing a good quality education to a child–especially a girl–is like throwing a stone into a still pond–the effects are far-reaching and profound. Consider these:

• 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. From What Works in Girls’ Education
• Benefits of girls’ education include not only the reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS, but reduction of poverty, improvement of the health of women and their children, delay of marriage, reduction of female genital cutting, and increase in self-confidence and decision-making power. From Women and HIV/AIDS: Confronting the Crisis.
• Education is a prerequisite for short & long-term economic growth. No country has achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40 percent of adults being able to read and write. From Millions Miss Out.

So from the statements above you can see how education expands the power of virtually every other development investment.

The Education for All Act of 2011 calls for the U.S. to “support a multilateral education initiative, like the Fast Track Initiative, that adheres to strong principles of aid effectiveness.” Last year, RESULTS volunteers were lobbying for the creation of a Global Fund for Education modeled after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and incorporated that fund’s best practices.

In the last year, however,  the Fast Track Initiative has restructured itself to significantly adhere to the model presented by the Global Fund. In many ways, the FTI is metamorphosing into the hoped for Global Fund for Education. Consequently, RESULTS is now supporting the FTI. In a recent RESULTS conference call with Carol Bellamy, the chair of the FTI, said that the FTI was considering changing its name to at least include the word “education”.

So it looks like passage of the Education For All Act would be a huge achievement and a real advance toward a more just and peaceful world. BUT, I also think that passage of the Education For All Act of 2011 would likely hurt U.S. prosperity in the short term. (Bet you didn’t see that coming!)

Let me explain. Educational advances in the less developed countries would make their citizens even better workers for multinational companies than they are now. With more educated citizens (workers), foreign businesses would be better able to compete against U.S. business. The technology edge the U.S. currently enjoys would be reduced and perhaps disappear as other countries advance. U.S. educational levels are in decline, especially with U.S. governments at all levels cutting funding for education. Children in the U.S. already have high dropout rates. While researching for this blog entry I found U.S. high school drop out rates of 30% and 8.1%. Meanwhile, the children of other countries have surpassed U.S. children who are now in the middle of the pack in educational achievement.

So with an international economy and jobs increasingly dependent on worker knowledge, declining investments in U.S. education and increased education investments in other countries, American workers trying to compete in the global marketplace would be at a disadvantage.

On the other hand, increased education increases income which means the citizens of other countries would be better able to buy U.S. made goods which would help U.S. workers. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S. already exports 51% of its goods to developing countries.

Long term, I’m sure helping other countries to educate their children is in the best interests of the U.S. It’s just in the short term, I’m not so sure about.