Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Chrissy Houlahan and Mike Quigley introduced the Global Learning Loss Assessment Act.
This legislation aims to address education loss. School closures stemming from this global health crisis have affected more than 1 billion students around the world, and, according to a recent study by Save the Children, about 10 million students are in danger of permanently dropping out of school due to rising poverty related to the pandemic.
U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Ben Cardin have introduced companion legislation in the Senate.
This bill notes the major economic and humanitarian implications of the learning loss as well as the significant shortage of global financing for international education programs that is predicted.
If enacted, the bill requires USAID to submit a report within 90 days to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the impact of COVID-19 on global learning and basic education programs.
The bill requires the report to be made publicly available and to include an assessment of the magnitude of global learning loss; an analysis of how school closures affect marginalized children; descriptions of forms of distance learning in low-resource contexts; data on USAID programs being carried out to continue learning during the pandemic; and a description of the resources USAID needs to support education programs during and after the pandemic.
