2011 Sept. Global Conf. Call: Education for All!

We are in month 2 of a 3-month effort to gather support for the Education for All Act, and ultimately to get the Administration to commit funding to the Global Partnership for Education (formerly FTI) in November.

Joanne Carter, Executive Director, introduced our guest speaker, Rep. Adam Smith (WA-D). Rep. Smith complemented RESULTS on being the most effective advocacy group he knows of, and highlighted the importance of our investment in poverty-focused development assistance. He described many practical reasons for investing, but also highlighted that he believes it's the right thing for our nation to do. As one of the lead sponsors of the Education for All Act of 2011, he highlighted the value of investing in global education.

Joanne also announced that we are looking ahead to the 2012 International Conference, July 21-24. Our conference overlaps with the International AIDS Conference, which will make it exciting. We hope to make the 2012 conference the biggest one ever!

John Fawcett, Legislative Director, highlighted the work to be done on getting 100 cosponsors on the Education for All Act (we have 25 now), and Senate appropriations. He also highlighted a particular opportunity we have to get cosigners on a letter that Senator Gillibrand is circulating, calling on appropriators to increase funding for PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. You can take action on this here.

Blair Hinderliter gave us an update on EFA media produced so far and encouraged activists to write letters to the editor, opeds, and to pitch editorial writers.

Ken Patterson hosted two shares, one from Nancy Curtiss of Olympia, WA where she talked about her promising work with her Tea Party Rep. Beth Wachira of Houston, TX gave a riveting share her work with the Houston editorial staff, but also reflected on her own education journey from Kenya to the US.

Finally, David Schubert of Houston, TX and Allison Gallaher of Grafton, OH did an excellent role play on pitching our Education for All work to an editorial writer. The day following the call, the Houston Chronicle printed an outstanding editorial.

Here are some useful resources for the coming weeks:

1. Laser talk on getting our representatives to cosponsor the Education for All Act

2. Recording: September 2011 Global Conference Call: Rep. Adam Smith on EFA

3. Recording: August 17, 2011 Media Support Call: Generating Media on EFA and FTI

4. EFA support materials including FTI and EFA Act fact sheets, outreach resources, etc.