Happy cherry blossom season!
For the last few months we’ve all, in our own ways, been grappling with the new administration’s dramatic policy changes roiling the city, the nation, and the world.
For those of us involved in global education or other international work, the impacts have already been quite real and devastating. Our hearts go out to all those – at home and abroad – who are directly affected by budget cuts, agency eliminations, and job losses. Although Globalize DC receives no federal funds, much of what we are seeing is a direct assault on the work we were created to do – to expand access for our local K-12 students, particularly those most underserved and marginalized, to high quality global education, language learning, and study abroad.
We have spent considerable time reflecting on the current state of affairs, and this much is clear. We are in the place we absolutely need to be at this time:
1. The need to educate American students about the world and our place in it (as individuals and as a nation) is more urgent than ever. Massive shifts to US foreign policy, foreign assistance, and our standing in the world haven’t appeared to generate a particularly strong response from the general public. Most Americans still very much see the rest of the world as marginal to their core interests and existence. Globalize DC, on the other hand, is built on the belief that all K-12 students need to learn about the larger world, and to appreciate our shared humanity, our shared challenges, and our common destiny. This is essential knowledge for any child growing up in the 21st century.
An immediate challenge for us: At this moment, DC is seriously considering reducing World History course requirements for high school graduation. We need collectively to fight any such policy change while working with educators to find ways to increase learning about the world for all students.
2. With future funding for public schools uncertain, our strength at this moment is that we operate outside school, focused on leveraging the city’s extensive global assets to expand global and language learning opportunities not available at school. Our city’s current FY2025 budget is still in the hands of the US House of Representatives. Even if those proposed cuts are averted, we know that future federal budget cuts, and the dismantling of the US Department of Education, will have severe repercussions for our students, families, and schools. We know from experience that in this kind of fiscal environment, urgent priorities will take precedence over subjects considered optional, like global education and world languages.
An immediate challenge for us: Our current work with DC’s Reimagining High School Graduation Requirements Initiative, led by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), has created an opportunity for us to work with the city to develop innovative policies, such as competency-based credit for world languages and other types of credit flexibility, that could really help us create a global learning ecosystem that could dramatically increase global education, cultural exchange, and language learning opportunities for students outside their individual schools.
3. This is a perilous time for our most vulnerable populations, and we need to ensure that DC’s most underserved students – Black, Brown, immigrant, lower income – are supported and not left behind in the global education arena. When I entered the field decades ago, there was a deeply entrenched perception that international studies and international careers were primarily the domain of white and privileged students. Thank goodness, we’ve seen real progress since then, but we also have far to go. It will take intention and effort to keep this momentum moving forward – to create accessible opportunities and pathways for students, wherever they happen to live or go to school, to pursue their global interests and dreams.
An immediate challenge for us: Access to K-12 world language and globally focused social studies courses and programs is very inequitably distributed across the city’s public schools, with eastern wards generally having the fewest opportunities. DC’s Reimagining High School Graduation Requirements Initiative is our best chance at this moment to work with city leaders to develop new strategies and policies that will tangibly ameliorate these longstanding inequities.
Our next five months are critical.
We are excited to be focused now and through the summer on building Globalize DC’s organizational capacity to address these immediate challenges and put us in a strong position to expand our strategic and program work in the new school year and beyond. This involves developing our alliance of partners and supporters, strengthening our advocacy efforts, and positioning ourselves to sustain and expand our student programming. This will mean significantly increasing our fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and community-building efforts.
Here are the two big ways you can help as we step up our work to meet this current moment:
Please join our network in the way that best fits your situation and interests.
And if you are able, please make a tax-deductible contribution, in any amount that works for you.
Your support will help us build our capacity for the big work ahead in the coming school year.
Thank you all! La luta continua.