[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 54 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 54

Affirming the role of the United States in improving access to quality, 
inclusive public education and improving learning outcomes for children 
       and adolescents, particularly for girls, around the world.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 24, 2023

 Ms. Meng (for herself, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Bera, Mr. Bishop of Georgia, 
Mr. Bowman, Ms. Brown, Mr. Carter of Louisiana, Mr. Case, Ms. Clarke of 
   New York, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Crow, Mr. DeSaulnier, Mrs. 
 Dingell, Mr. Evans, Ms. Lois Frankel of Florida, Ms. Garcia of Texas, 
 Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Himes, Ms. Houlahan, Mr. Johnson of 
Georgia, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Lieu, Ms. McCollum, 
   Mr. McGovern, Mr. Morelle, Mr. Moulton, Ms. Norton, Ms. Omar, Mr. 
  Payne, Mr. Peters, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Ross, Mr. Ruiz, Ms. 
  Salazar, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Titus, Ms. Tokuda, Ms. Velazquez, Ms. 
  Wasserman Schultz, and Mrs. Watson Coleman) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Affirming the role of the United States in improving access to quality, 
inclusive public education and improving learning outcomes for children 
       and adolescents, particularly for girls, around the world.

Whereas the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed January 24 as the 
        International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education 
        for peace and development;
Whereas the theme of the fifth International Day of Education is ``to invest in 
        people, prioritize education'';
Whereas access to quality education reduces poverty, advances economic 
        prosperity, improves peace and security, and strengthens public health, 
        and poverty is one of the most striking factors that impedes the 
        attainment of foundational learning skills, particularly with regard to 
        reading;
Whereas foundational learning is an essential first step to enable children and 
        young people to access more advanced learning and skills, and children 
        who cannot read and understand a simple text will struggle to learn 
        anything else in school and they are more likely to repeat a grade and 
        drop out of school;
Whereas at its peak, COVID-19-related school closures affected more than 94 
        percent of the world's students, representing 1,580,000,000 children and 
        youth, from preprimary to higher education, in 200 countries;
Whereas an estimated 147,000,000 children have missed more than half of their 
        in-class instruction over the past 2 years due to school closures caused 
        by the COVID-19 pandemic;
Whereas this generation of children, affected by disruptions to education 
        because of the pandemic, could lose a combined total of 
        $17,000,000,000,000 in lifetime earnings;
Whereas, before COVID-19, primary enrollment for girls had increased by 65 
        percent; now an estimated 129 million girls worldwide remain out of 
        school and face multiple barriers to education, and investments in 
        addressing the challenges that are keeping girls out of school are 
        critical investments in global prosperity;
Whereas approximately 222,000,000 school-aged children are affected by crises, 
        of which 78,200,000 are out of school and 119,600,000 are not achieving 
        minimum competencies in mathematics and reading despite attending 
        school;
Whereas at the end of 2021, an estimated (41 percent) 36,500,000 of the world's 
        89,300,000 refugees, internally displaced persons, and other forcibly 
        displaced persons were children and an estimated 68 percent of refugee 
        children were enrolled at the primary level, but only 37 percent were 
        enrolled at the secondary level;
Whereas there remains a need to close the gap between refugees and their peers 
        in the area of higher education;
Whereas the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) should 
        expand access to distance learning materials and technology, support 
        safe school reopening plans, including reenrollment campaigns for out-
        of-school children and youth, and prioritize assessments of student 
        learning levels, remedial and accelerated learning, and curriculum 
        adaptation, and renew efforts to reach marginalized students, including 
        girls, children with disabilities, and those living in displaced persons 
        camps, in line with the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (Public 
        Law 117-229);
Whereas for every $1 invested in girls' education, as much of $2.80 is generated 
        in economic growth, equating to billions of dollars in additional GDP 
        growth, and in contrast, failing to educate girls is costing countries 
        between $15,000,000,000,000 and $30,000,000,000,000 in lost lifetime 
        productivity and earnings;
Whereas even as domestic resources are taken into account, the annual financing 
        gap over 2015-2030 for reaching quality universal preprimary, primary, 
        and secondary education in low and lower middle income countries is 
        $39,000,000,000;
Whereas continued and increased bilateral educational support from the United 
        States Government, as well as multilateral partnerships like the Global 
        Partnership for Education (GPE) and Education Cannot Wait (ECW), play a 
        critical role in helping marginalized children and adolescents build a 
        future for themselves and the communities in which they live;
Whereas in fiscal year 2021, USAID global education programs reached more than 
        33,400,000 learners in 73 countries and assisted more than 113,000 
        schools at the preprimary, primary, and secondary levels;
Whereas the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is a proven and effective aid 
        delivery mechanism that complements the United States Government's 
        bilateral basic education programs by fostering coordination among all 
        key partners, supporting the development and implementation of strong 
        national education sector plans, and building on the commitment of 
        developing country governments to expand quality educational 
        opportunities for children in an equitable manner;
Whereas the United States Government's annual support for GPE has had a 
        transformative impact in the lives of children around the world, and 
        since GPE's inception in 2002, 160,000,000 more children, more than half 
        of them girls, are in school in GPE's 85 partner countries;
Whereas the United States pledged $305,000,000 over 3 years to the Global 
        Partnership for Education at its 2021 Global Education Summit;
Whereas ECW is at the forefront of efforts to increase access to education in 
        crisis settings, and since its inception in 2016, ECW has reached 
        6,900,000 children and adolescents; provided education materials and 
        textbooks to over 4,200,000 children; strengthened equity and gender 
        equality by reaching 3,300,000 girls; supported the training of 87,367 
        teachers and administrators; doubled the number of teachers trained on 
        mental health and psychosocial support; and developed 24 Multi-Year 
        Resilience Programs and disbursed 199 First Emergency Response grants;
Whereas the United States has been central to the success of ECW, as the third 
        largest donor to ECW currently, and continued support will be critical 
        if ECW is to meet its 2023-2026 Strategic Plan goals;
Whereas the private sector is an important partner to USAID and the Department 
        of State in reaching international education goals as evidenced by a 
        2019 joint pledge of $12,500,000 to Education Cannot Wait by LEGO 
        Foundation to bring quality learning experiences to children in 
        emergency situations;
Whereas the United States Government has long been a leader in global education 
        and has made global commitments to improve access to education and 
        learning for at least 15,000,000 girls globally by 2025;
Whereas the United States has also endorsed the Commitment to Action on 
        Foundational Learning as developed with World Bank, UNICEF, and USAID 
        during the 2022 United Nations Transforming Education Summit, committing 
        to taking urgent and decisive action to ensure all children develop the 
        foundational skills needed to reduce the global share of children unable 
        to read and understand a simple text by age 10, by half, by 2030;
Whereas USAID made 16 commitments to be achieved by 2026 at the Global 
        Disability Summit, including commitments to promote disability-inclusive 
        education, strengthen disability data for education programming, promote 
        the Universal Design for Learning approach in all new education 
        programs, and increase disability-inclusive initiatives at all levels of 
        education, from preprimary through higher education programming;
Whereas Congress has long supported strong bipartisan funding for the 
        International Basic Education program at USAID; however the President's 
        annual Budget Request for international basic education funding has been 
        lower than the previously congressionally appropriated level since 2004;
Whereas Congress passed the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development 
        (READ) Act (Division A, Public Law 115-56), in 2017 to demonstrate the 
        United States Government's commitment to improve access to education 
        around the world and ensure individuals around the world have the 
        education and skills needed to be productive members of society and the 
        workforce; and
Whereas the authorities under the READ Act expire at the end of fiscal year 
        2023: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) commends the leadership and commitment of the United 
        States Government to improve access to quality, inclusive 
        education and improved learning outcomes for the poorest and 
        most marginalized children and adolescents worldwide, which 
        promotes global stability, economic prosperity, and poverty 
        elimination;
            (2) recognizes that United States Government investments in 
        bilateral basic education are complemented by Global 
        Partnership for Education's education systems-level approach 
        and partnership building and Education Cannot Wait's focus on 
        education in emergencies and protracted crises;
            (3) encourages the United States Government to integrate 
        education in all humanitarian response efforts--both bilateral 
        and multilateral--and continue to promote coordination across 
        all sectors and branches of the United States Government;
            (4) implores the United States Government to meet its 
        various commitments to international basic education through 
        its annual budget requests to Congress and to expand bilateral 
        and multilateral support recognizing the significant global 
        need;
            (5) calls on the Secretary of State and the Administrator 
        of the United States Agency for International Development to 
        use all diplomatic, humanitarian, and development means, 
        including via high-level leadership in multilaterals, and 
        global convenings, to promote access to quality education for 
        children and adolescents throughout the world; and
            (6) calls on the Secretary of State and the Administrator 
        of the United States Agency for International Development to 
        commit to prioritizing quality, inclusive public education for 
        children and youth with disabilities, girls, children and youth 
        in emergency and crisis settings, and traditionally 
        marginalized groups as a critical component to learning equity, 
        poverty elimination, and global stability and prosperity.
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