Your advocacy helped get the READ Act to the finish line, and RESULTS stands with our community against harmful provisions in the larger, unrelated bill

Congress passed the READ Act Reauthorization, and President Biden will sign it into law before the end of the year. This is an important step for increasing the impact and equity of U.S. global education investments. The READ Act was attached to one of the last moving bills of the year, the massive annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA contains many harmful provisions that RESULTS strongly opposes.  

The READ Act bolsters global education equity 

Many of you have spoken passionately in the media and to your lawmakers about the bipartisan READ Act Reauthorization of 2023 (H.R. 681 and S.41).  The READ Act originally passed with strong bipartisan support in 2017. It hones the U.S. strategy for global basic education. It requires stronger oversight and accountability for the program’s impact. Importantly, it authorizes U.S. support for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). With U.S. support, GPE has helped over 160 million children worldwide enter and stay in school. High quality education supported by GPE and the READ Act can unlock opportunities for children everywhere. Mastering basic math and literacy is a launchpad for school and for life. Children born to mothers with 12 years of education or more are 30 percent more likely to survive past age five. Every year of school completed represents an average 10 percent increase in future earnings.  

Your advocacy was critical to the READ Act’s reauthorization 

As advocates, you raised your voices to call for US leadership on global basic education. You did this seven years ago when the READ Act passed originally. And you did it again for the reauthorization. The READ Act helps ensure transparency in global basic education spending. It will support inclusion for children who are often targeted and excluded from school. You showed your lawmakers how education access gives people the tools to create economic stability. This helps prevent tragic loss of life due to dangerous migration journeys. You’ve also shared about how learning poverty enshrines systems of racism and oppression. Congress has now reauthorized the READ Act. Your bipartisan advocacy made it inescapable. 

To reauthorize the READ Act before year-end, Congress attached it to unrelated legislation with harmful provisions 

Congress often attaches well-supported bills like the READ Act to larger legislation that must pass before the end of the year. This helps simplify the process for moving bills to a vote. That is how the READ Act wound up attached to the NDAA. The NDAA authorizes the Defense Department and many tools of war. Key provisions of the NDAA completely contradict RESULTS’s core values. It is not legislation RESULTS would ever promote. No one in our network asked members of Congress to vote yes on the NDAA.  Violent conflict always worsens poverty and oppression. Our values also state our unequivocal support for trans/LBGTQIA+ people, especially children. We vehemently oppose the attack on trans children included in the NDAA. 

Without your advocacy, the READ Act never would have made it this far 

We celebrate your unflinching advocacy that helped ensure support for young learners all over the world. The latest version of the READ Act will be law. More communities will have the resources to educate their children and build their power. And together, we will all continue to fight for justice. 

Please do follow up with your members of Congress who co-sponsored the READ Act and thank them for their support.