World leaders

NEA Today, Oct 1998

Former NEA President Mary Hatwood Futrell will be continuing as president of the Education International. Delegates at this July's Second World Congress of the El re-elected both Futrell and El General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen from the Netherlands.

Over the past three years, Futrell and van Leeuwen have worked particularly hard at pushing the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the world's two most powerful aid agencies, to recognize the primacy of education to healthy, sustainable economic growth.

in recent years, aid agencies have demanded that nations balance their budgets by cutting spending for education and other social services -or risk losing international aid.

"The mission of education," Futrell told World Congress delegates, "must be measured by the needs of children and never the greed of nations."