Right now, 62 million girls worldwide aren’t in school. They’re receiving no reading, no writing, no math — none of the basic skills they need to provide for themselves and their families, and contribute fully to their countries. Often, understandably, this problem is considered as a result of a failure to invest enough money in educating girls. We can solve this problem. If we provide more scholarships for girls, then they can afford school fees, uniforms and supplies.

It’s true that investments like these are important to deal with our global girls’ education crisis. However, we cannot solve our girls’ education problem until we deal with the broader cultural beliefs and practices that could cause and continue this crisis.

We know that legal and cultural change is possible because we’ve seen it in countries around the world, including our own. A century ago, women in America couldn’t even vote. Decades ago, it was perfectly legal for employers to refuse to hire women. But in each generation, brave people — both men and women — stood up to change these practices. They did it through individual acts like taking their bosses to court and even through national movements that brought changes.

Unluckily, as I traveled around the world, I met so many girls who were too hungry to realize their promise. They walk for hours each day to school, learning at shaking desks in poor classrooms. These girls aren’t different from any of our daughters. None of us here in the U.S. would accept this for our own daughters and granddaughters, so why would we accept it for any girl on our planet? I talk about this issue here at home, because I believe that all of us have a duty to give all of these girls a future worth their promise and their dreams.