I'm here calling for something that if achieved, will bring about a
terror already known to millions of children in the world 's richest
countries.

Homework.

It's not lost on me, as a product of the American educational
system, that's I'm here bending the ears of the elite about kids
getting to be somewhere I often made an excuse or feigned illness to
get out of attending as a child (To Mrs. Hoffman, if you're still
teaching 4th grade, I'm sorry. I was wrong. It turns out reading is
important.)

I was at Davos with Kailash Satyarthi, a child-rights activist and
President of the Global Campaign for Education, engaging leaders in the
"Class of 2105," a new global leadership group mobilizing resources,
political will and public opinion behind the Education for All goals,
bringing together major players from business, faith groups, civil
society and government to make the case for a breakthrough on
education.

And Davos is as good a place as any to make the argument for
education. Now, more than ever, education is a sound investment in
people, global economies and security. It offers a pathway to escaping
from poverty, to finding a good job, and to becoming an active and
valuable contributor to the social and economic health of our
communities.

If a basic human rights case doesn't move your hearts and minds,
note the evidence is clear that expansion of quality education, with a
particular focus on girls, may be one of the highest yield investments
available in the developing world. A person's earnings increase by 10%
for each year of schooling they receive, translating to a 1% annual
increase in GDP. A woman's children are less likely to die before age
5, a young girl is less likely to contract HIV.

And as in the case of international summits and forums, it's not
just the promise that needs to be made, it's the check that needs to be
written. In 2000, world leaders pledged to ensure that by 2015, there
would be Education for All. Eight years later, the world is far off
track for making the education goals a reality. We've seen real
progress with 40 million more children in school and experts agree that
the goals are achievable--but much more needs to be done.

Kailash spoke on the WEF's Global Education Initiative Panel here,
saying as a child labor activist, he's seen the best and the worst
sides of the private sector's role in developing countries, and he is
convinced that on the issue of education, it can be a true force for
good.

And he's been joined in the "Class of 2015" by a growing roster of
leaders, from Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, UK Prime Minister
Brown, EU President Barroso and World Bank President Robert Zoellick to
private sector champions like FIFA, Cisco CEO John Chambers, Intel
Chairman Craig Barrett, celebrities, faith and civil society leaders.
Bono and Bob Geldof have sjgned up and FIFA has even committed to
making a lasting legacy of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that
every child in Africa should be able to go to school.

Business can do a great deal, but it's really governments that must
lead the charge. Momentum is growing, with the UK taking a leadership
position by pledging to spend £8.5 billion in the next 10 years,
helping the world's poorest countries recruit more teachers, build new
classrooms and provide basic materials like books. Last year, France
and Britain also each agreed to commit to supporting eight million
children in school in Africa by 2010. In June, the EU recently
committed to a plan with an ambition of increasing aid to education to
$4.3 billion per year by 2010, which would almost double the money
currently available to ensure universal primary education.

And President Obama proposed this past September at another
influential forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, a US contribution of
$2 billion to a new "Global Education Fund", one that would leverage
commitments from other rich countries and help get us back on track to
meeting the Education for All goals. Before recently heading back to
Pennsylvania Avenue to serve in the Obama Administration, former
National Economic Adviser to President Clinton and director of the
National Economic Council Gene Sperling did key work on pushing this
new idea along, as a novel funding mechanism much in the vein of the
Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria. When Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton testified on Capitol Hill for her confirmation hearings, this
"Global Education Fund" was the only new international development
effort that she named.

We know that Education For All is achievable. The question is do we
have the political will? At a "Class of 2015" event in Oslo this past
December, we heard how Hem Lata, a 17 year-old girl forced into early
marriage, not only realized her dream of going to school but also
helped others to do so too.

Her challenge to the government representatives there: "If I can do
this, why can't you, as world leaders, do the same for all children of
the world?"

And it's a very good question. Education For All would cost just $16
billion in total overseas aid per year, a tiny fraction of the proposed
financial bailouts. As rich countries spend their way out of trouble at
home, running up huge budget deficits to so, developing countries face
a double jeopardy. As their own resources shrink, development aid is
likely to fall, with poor countries of the world further strapped for
cash to pay for vital public goods such as education.

In forums like Davos and with efforts like the "Class of 2015," we
must keep global education high on the political and public agenda,
calling for rich countries to live up to their aid promises and make
that aid predictable and recurrent, whilst at the same time relaxing
the restrictions on poor countries' own public investment.

The global economic crisis is serious, but it cannot be a reason to
fail to build the political will to achieve education goals and keep
the promise that every child will get the opportunity of an education
by 2015. World leaders, your homework is due.