Bill Gates Champions Education, Global Health in Appearance at GW

By Julia Parmley

America’s investment in fighting poverty and promoting education and health care nationally and in the developing world has never been more paramount, stressed Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates in a Dec. 3 policy address delivered in GW’s Dorothy Betts Marvin Theatre.

After an introduction from GW President Steven Knapp, Gates urged lawmakers to make good on promises to help the world’s disadvantaged and impoverished, provided an update on Gates Foundation activities, and addressed a range of issues in a question-and-answer session moderated by GW professor and CNN special correspondent Frank Sesno.

Gates, co-chair and trustee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commended GW for its high number of graduates serving in the Peace Corps and Teach for America. “If young people in America make the kinds of choices that students are making here at GW, we are going to have a great future,” he said.

Gates then called on President-elect Barack Obama to increase funding for public education and development assistance. “These investments work,” said Gates. “The money the United States spends in developing countries to prevent disease, fight poverty, and create opportunity is some of the best money we spend as Americans. And education reform can work as well. There are teachers doing amazing things with students in some very high-need neighborhoods across America. They should get the support they need.”

The Gates Foundation’s U.S. Program improves access to secondary and post-secondary education with specific focus on low-income and minority students. In his address, Gates listed several disadvantaged public schools in his program with retention and graduation rates that now “smash old prejudices.” He called on Obama and the federal government to recruit and retain effective teachers, reform state educational standards and curricula, make post¬secondary completion a national priority, and create data systems that encourage knowledge-sharing and instructional improvements.

“If we have a growing percentage of highly educated young people—schooled in math, science, engineering, and liberal arts—we’re going to have a strong economy,” said Gates. “Today’s down economy doesn’t mean education will be less important for the future, so a down economy doesn’t mean we should cut back on education.”

Gates also urged Obama to continue foreign assistance in health and development around the world. The Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program creates opportunities for impoverished people, while the development of vaccines and medicines for the world’s most deadly diseases is the mission of the foundation’s Global Health Program.

Gates praised the work of GW’s Peter Hotez, Walter G. Ross Professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at the GW Medical Center. Dr. Hotez and his team at the Sabin Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit medical research and advocacy organization supported by the Gates Foundation, have developed a vaccine for hookworm, one of the world’s most prevalent tropical diseases.

Gates noted that medical advances and increases in foreign assistance over the past few decades have led to huge gains in the fight against diseases and poverty and urged Obama to keep his promise to double U.S. foreign assistance to $50 billion by 2012.

“If we can support the president as he stands by his pledge to the poorest nations—even in the face of our own financial crisis—it will make a phenomenal statement about the kind of partner America plans to be in the world,” said Gates. “Of course, the point isn’t only to enhance America’s reputation in the world—that’s a byproduct. The point is to improve lives.”
Gates told the audience that there is no better time than now to address the inequalities around the world.

“If you look at the stock market, business activity, or budget deficits, things are dark. But if you consider our capacities and opportunities, our passion and vision, the outlook is bright,” said Gates. “We can keep moving toward a world where every child grows up in good health, goes to a good school, and has opportunities waiting—as long as we stay confident about the future and keep investing in it.”

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu