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.

IV 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. BARRAGA´N, 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 Flor- ida, 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. VELA´ZQUEZ, Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, and Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN) submitted the fol- lowing resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Af- fairs RESOLUTION Affirming the role of the United States in improving access to quality, inclusive public education and improving learning outcomes for children and adolescents, particu- larly for girls, around the world. Whereas the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed January 24 as the International Day of Education, in VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HRES 54 IH celebration of the role of education for peace and develop- ment; Whereas the theme of the fifth International Day of Edu- cation is ‘‘to invest in people, prioritize education’’; Whereas access to quality education reduces poverty, ad- vances 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 en- able children and young people to access more advanced learning and skills, and children who cannot read and un- derstand 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 af- fected more than 94 percent of the world’s students, rep- resenting 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 com- bined 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HRES 54 IH 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 com- petencies 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 refu- gees and their peers in the area of higher education; Whereas the United States Agency for International Develop- ment (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 dis- abilities, 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 bil- lions of dollars in additional GDP growth, and in con- trast, failing to educate girls is costing countries between VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HRES 54 IH $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 sup- port from the United States Government, as well as mul- tilateral 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 commu- nities in which they live; Whereas in fiscal year 2021, USAID global education pro- grams 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 com- plements the United States Government’s bilateral basic education programs by fostering coordination among all key partners, supporting the development and implemen- tation of strong national education sector plans, and building on the commitment of developing country gov- ernments 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 chil- dren around the world, and since GPE’s inception in VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HRES 54 IH 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 adoles- cents; provided education materials and textbooks to over 4,200,000 children; strengthened equity and gender equality by reaching 3,300,000 girls; supported the train- ing of 87,367 teachers and administrators; doubled the number of teachers trained on mental health and psycho- social 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 inter- national 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 lead- er 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; VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HRES 54 IH Whereas the United States has also endorsed the Commit- ment 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 re- duce the global share of children unable to read and un- derstand 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 commit- ments to promote disability-inclusive education, strength- en disability data for education programming, promote the Universal Design for Learning approach in all new education programs, and increase disability-inclusive ini- tiatives at all levels of education, from preprimary through higher education programming; Whereas Congress has long supported strong bipartisan fund- ing 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 Ac- countability 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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HRES 54 IH Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 1 (1) commends the leadership and commitment 2 of the United States Government to improve access 3 to quality, inclusive education and improved learning 4 outcomes for the poorest and most marginalized 5 children and adolescents worldwide, which promotes 6 global stability, economic prosperity, and poverty 7 elimination; 8 (2) recognizes that United States Government 9 investments in bilateral basic education are com- 10 plemented by Global Partnership for Education’s 11 education systems-level approach and partnership 12 building and Education Cannot Wait’s focus on edu- 13 cation in emergencies and protracted crises; 14 (3) encourages the United States Government 15 to integrate education in all humanitarian response 16 efforts—both bilateral and multilateral—and con- 17 tinue to promote coordination across all sectors and 18 branches of the United States Government; 19 (4) implores the United States Government to 20 meet its various commitments to international basic 21 education through its annual budget requests to 22 Congress and to expand bilateral and multilateral 23 support recognizing the significant global need; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HRES 54 IH (5) calls on the Secretary of State and the Ad- 1 ministrator of the United States Agency for Inter- 2 national Development to use all diplomatic, humani- 3 tarian, and development means, including via high- 4 level leadership in multilaterals, and global 5 convenings, to promote access to quality education 6 for children and adolescents throughout the world; 7 and 8 (6) calls on the Secretary of State and the Ad- 9 ministrator of the United States Agency for Inter- 10 national Development to commit to prioritizing qual- 11 ity, inclusive public education for children and youth 12 with disabilities, girls, children and youth in emer- 13 gency and crisis settings, and traditionally 14 marginalized groups as a critical component to 15 learning equity, poverty elimination, and global sta- 16 bility and prosperity. 17 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:23 Jan 25, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\HR54.IH HR54 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS