New York Times: Throwing Open the Schoolhouse Doors, Once and For All
Gordon Brown, former prime minister of Britain and U.N. special envoy for global education

“…The fourth Sustainable Development Goal — equitable and inclusive quality education for all — commits us to make our generation, by 2030, the first in history to send every child to school. Today, the shameful reality is that 260 million children aren’t going to class. … A recent World Bank study shows that child marriage could become a thing of the past if all girls attended school. … And female illiteracy has a devastating effect on a community’s health, with infant mortality in Africa far higher among uneducated mothers. … [W]hile global health and educational institutions in developed countries are blessed with outstanding private philanthropists, global education has yet to discover its latter-day Andrew Carnegie. Business investments in global education have been a fraction of the investments in global health or the environment. … The $10 billion International Finance Facility for Education can break through the aid stalemate. Proposed by the Education Commission, … the fund is focused on the more than 700 million children living in the world’s lower-middle-income countries … A global fund for education on a scale that matches the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would help honor our long-delayed promise of education for all and bring one of the worst-funded Sustainable Development Goals within reach. It would also send a timely message to the world: that even in the most insular and protectionist of environments, we can advance international cooperation and prove that globalization can still work for those who have been left behind” (12/4).