For those families, education is a luxury they cannot afford without help.

That is why legislation before the U.S. Senate should be passed. The Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children in Developing Countries Act of 2004 would give many poor countries the funds they need to be able to eliminate school fees for the poorest children.

The legislation could send millions of boys and girls to school who would otherwise never learn the basics of reading and arithmetic, and, as important, how to make a living, how to avoid contracting AIDS and other diseases, and how to live healthier - and longer - lives.

Education must be seen as a life-and-death necessity if Africa is ever to win its battle with AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa, 11 million AIDS orphans, who account for 40 percent of all school-age children, cannot attend school. Annual school fees keep them out. The fees were senselessly imposed at the request of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to cut government spending in some countries that are indebted to those organizations.

Pricing children out of school only perpetuates a cycle of poverty that extends to whole nations. By contrast, in countries that have been able to drop fees, millions more children have enrolled in school, helping to break the pattern of near-hopelessness.

In Kenya, 1.3 million children started school, a 22 percent increase, after the country eliminated school fees. Uganda has nearly tripled school enrollment, from 2.5 million in 1997 to 6.5 million in 2000, by dropping primary-school fees. Statistics in that country show that, compared with uneducated children, students with secondary-school education were one-third as likely to be HIV-positive.

The effects of education spread through families and the community. Educated women have fewer children and those they produce are usually healthier and more likely to survive. Men and women who have attended school have a higher standard of living.

A version of the assistance act has passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senate also should act to make the funds available to let children go to class. It is a wise investment in their future and the future of the world.