Copyright 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
March 24, 2002 Sunday Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 4B

LENGTH: 566 words

HEADLINE: Isakson off to African schools

BYLINE: MELANIE EVERSLEY

SOURCE: AJC

BODY:
Washington --- Rep. Johnny Isakson will spend this week a long way from the suits and memos of Capitol Hill.

The Republican congressman from Georgia is visiting Africa to interview Muslim girls going to school for the first time and to explore villages where families take part in youngsters' education.

Isakson planned to leave today on the weeklong trip, organized by the Basic Education Coalition. The Washington-based group is made up of 16 nonprofit groups focused on showing how education and social progress go hand in hand. The purpose of the visit is to study innovative school programs in Egypt and Ethiopia. Most of the programs are funded by U.S.-based organizations.

The trip solidifies Isakson's emergence as an education leader, after his role in promoting President Bush's education reform bill last year and his service as chairman of the state Board of Education from 1997 to '99.

"I want to be able to see the benefits of U.S. foreign aid and private donors in the education of young Muslim children, particularly women, at a time in which we now realize how little education was available in that part of the world," Isakson said Friday. "I think this will offer a unique opportunity to come back and tell the story."

The congressman also said, "It is of far greater importance and less expense for U.S. foreign policy to focus on bringing education to those in need than to rely on economic relief and military action."

Traveling with Isakson on the trip are representatives from the organizations; Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (R-Ohio); a staff member from each congressional office; and Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council under President Clinton.

While in Africa, the nine-member delegation will talk to representatives from parent-teacher associations, observe villages where helping children with health problems has improved their school performance and witness how girls have blossomed with the introduction of school into their lives.

There will even be a visit to a PTA meeting in Ethiopia in a place where the charter school concept of parental involvement is boosting performance, Isakson said.

The coalition hopes to raise the importance of good basic education globally. Atlanta-based CARE, the Christian Children's Fund, Save the Children and World Vision are among the members.

The coalition intends for this to be different from and more useful than the typical overseas congressional trip.

"Most members of Congress who spend lots of time in Washington, if they travel overseas, tend to stay in the capital cities and go to meetings with government officials, and they never really get out into the villages," said George Ingram, executive director of the Basic Education Coalition.

"We figured one of the most useful things we could do was find a couple of Congress members who were interested, simple as that," he said.

"You can read about these things all you want, and you can see pictures. You don't understand it until you can experience it firsthand, and that's what this is about."

Isakson agrees and is completely behind the notion that a good education is the foundation of a good society.

"Education is essential to economic growth, promotes advancement in social well-being, brings hope to people who have known no hope, and teaches the value of democracy and self-sufficiency," he said.

LOAD-DATE: February 26, 2003