Cuba is the sole dictatorship in the region and, as a result, will not be present in Santiago. It is our hope that Cuba continues to be left out of any democratic forum until it has undertaken fundamental democratic changes. When the leaders of those nations meet in Santiago, they will adopt a new Plan of Action designed to spread equality and opportunity to all localities and to people at all levels of the social scale. The goal of the plan is to extend to every citizen the tools needed to advance and prosper in a safe, secure, and clean environment of free people. Education will be a central focus of the summit.
Democratic nations understand the intrinsic importance of educating their citizens.
An educated populace produces a vibrant society and enables the country to prosper. Education is the single best tool for combating poverty and for narrowing the socially destructive divide between rich and poor. In Santiago, leaders will endorse allocating more funds for primary and secondary education to improve teacher training, elevate educational standards, increase textbook availability, and institute distance-learning programs. They will advocate curricula reform to teach democratic values, to meet the needs of a changing global marketplace, and to devise adult educational programs for lifelong learning, particularly for women and displaced workers. Education is closely tied to another major theme of the summit-reducing poverty and ending discrimination.