Dear Mr. President, Mr. Secretary, and Madame Director;

We, the undersigned educators and education organizations alarmed at the growing dimensions of the humanitarian and education crises in Afghanistan, call upon the United States to take action to confront these challenges. Especially concerned by the denial of education to millions of children (recently called to your attention by Save the Children) and to the majority of girls and women, we urge you to take action to evacuate and provide professional and study opportunities to the many scholars and students still at severe risk under the Taliban regime.

As you confront this deepening crisis, we urge you also to consider the needs of a post-Taliban future; in particular the foundation of a viable nation, education. To this end, we call for the United States to continue, at least, at pre-withdrawal levels, its aid to higher education in Afghanistan, and to allocate those portions no longer spent in country to the support of at-risk scholars and university students.

Specifically, we request that the total amounts previously allocated now be designated for continued expenditure in country to continue AID’s program in higher education (Advancing Higher Education for Afghanistan’s Development). Other funds, such as those that had been designated for preparing students for university study, we urge you to transfer to the support of the many scholars and students who would be welcomed to continue their professional activities and degree studies in various American universities with which some of us have discussed specific possibilities.

The two present obstacles to actualizing that welcome are funding and acquisition of visas. We urge the Administration in coordination with the US Agency for International Development to do all that it can to overcome the primary obstacle through AID’s allocation of the requisite funding. We call also for the Administration in coordination with the Department of State to prioritize the process of granting J1 visas for scholars and F1 visas for students a has been urged by the American Council on Education.

We urge these steps as fulfillment of our obligations to a country to which we had promised so much, and to assure that Afghanistan will have the requisite education resources to assure a more viable and humane future for its people.

Respectfully,

Betty A. Reardon, Ed.D.
Founding Director Emeritus, International Institute on Peace Education
Founder, Peace Education at Teachers College Columbia University

Arien Mack, Ph.D.
Alfred and Monette Marrow Professor of Psychology Emeritus, The New School for Social Research
Director, New University in Exile Consortium

Sakena Yacoobi, Ph.D.
Founding Director, Afghan Institute for Learning

Stephen P. Marks, Docteur d’État, Dipl. IHEI
François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

David Reilly, Ph.D.
Faculty Union President, Niagara University

Felisa Tibbets
UNESCO Chair in Human Rights in Higher Education, University of Utrecht
Teachers College Columbia University

Jonathan Reader, Ph.D.
Baker Professor of Sociology, Drew University

Tony Jenkins, Ph.D.
Managing Director, International Institute on Peace Education
Coordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education
Lecturer, Georgetown University

Wahid Omar, Ph.D.
Deputy Director, Advancing Education for Afghan Development

Matt Meyer
Secretary General, International Peace Research Association

Effie Cochran, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Dr. Leonisa Ardizone
Vassar College

Dr. Meg Gardenier
Lecturer, School for International Training

Barbara Barnes
Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Michael Loadenthal, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Peace & Justice Studies Association
Georgetown University

Elton Skendaj, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Democracy and Governance Program, Georgetown University

Dale Snauwaert, Ph.D.
University of Toledo

Jill Strauss, Ph.D.
City University of New York

Monisha Bajaj, Ed.D.
Director, Masters Program in Human Rights Education, University of San Francisco

Maria Hantzopoulos, Ph.D.
Coordinator, Adolescent Education Certificate Program, Vassar College

Prof. Kathleen Modrowski
Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, O. P. Jindal Global University

Patricia Mische Ed.D.
Co-Founder, Global Education Associates

*List of Signers in Process

CC: concerned elected officials