[Senate Hearing 109-115]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 109-115
INDIAN EDUCATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
OVERSIGHT HEARING ON THE STATUS OF INDIAN EDUCATION
__________
JUNE 16, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
21-951 WASHINGTON : 2005
_____________________________________________________________________________
For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; (202) 512�091800
Fax: (202) 512�092250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402�090001
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona, Chairman
BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Vice Chairman
PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii
CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming KENT CONRAD, North Dakota
GORDON SMITH, Oregon DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota
MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
Jeanne Bumpus, Majority Staff Director
Sara G. Garland, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Statements:
Beaulieu, David, president, National Indian Education
Association................................................ 20
Bordeaux, Roger, superintendent, Tiospa Zina Tribal School;
executive director, Association of Community Tribal
Schools, Inc............................................... 25
Cason, Jim, associate deputy secretary, Department of the
Interior................................................... 3
Dorgan, Hon. Byron L., U.S. Senator from North Dakota, vice
chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs...................... 1
Johnson, Hon. Tim, U.S. Senator from South Dakota............ 13
Lowery, Nick, acting chairman, National Fund For Excellence
In American Indian Education, Inc.......................... 17
McCain, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Arizona, chairman,
Committee on Indian Affairs................................ 1
McDonald, Joe, president, Salish Kootenai College,
representing the American Indian Higher Education
Consortium................................................. 22
Parisian, acting director, Office of Indian Education
Programs, Department of the Interior....................... 3
Thomas, Hon. Craig, U.S. Senator from Wyoming................ 11
Vasques, Victoria, director, Office of Indian Education,
Department of Education.................................... 4
Appendix
Prepared statements:
Beaulieu, David.............................................. 35
Bordeaux, Roger (with attachment)............................ 53
Cason, Jim................................................... 74
Inouye, Hon. Daniel K., U.S. Senator from Hawaii............. 112
McDonald, Joe (with attachment).............................. 87
Leonard, Leland, director, Division of Dine' Education,
Navajo Nation.............................................. 33
Lowery, Nick (with attachment)............................... 80
Vasques, Victoria (with attachment).......................... 99
INDIAN EDUCATION
----------
THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 2005
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room
485 Senate Russell Building, Hon. John McCain (chairman of the
committee), presiding.
Present: Senators McCain, Dorgan, Johnson, and Thomas.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN McCAIN, U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA,
CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
The Chairman. Good morning.
This oversight hearing will focus on Indian education.
Exactly 1 year ago today, this committee held an oversight
hearing on the No Child Left Behind Act. It is timely to have
an update on the implementation of that Act and other education
issues.
As we all know, education is critical to preparing children
for future leadership and productive employment and to
strengthening Indian economies. The committee's hearing
yesterday on Indian youth suicide reminds us, however, that
there are many challenges facing Indian youth which limit
educational achievement.
We must overcome this. We know that the Federal Government
has a special historic responsibility for Indian education.
Indian tribes also have a responsibility for their children's
education.
The committee is deeply concerned about the academic
performance levels and dropout rates of American Indians and
Alaska Native students. So we are particularly interested in
hearing how Federal agencies and Indian tribes are working
together to improve Indian education, particularly in areas
such as academic achievement, safe schools and post-secondary
graduation rates.
I would like to welcome the witnesses here today and look
forward to their testimony, especially any recommendations for
improving Indian education. Your entire statements will be made
part of the record.
Senator Dorgan.
STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH
DAKOTA, VICE CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Thanks
for holding this hearing. I think education is one of the
critical pieces of trying to improve the situation on
reservations in this country.
I thought, with your permission, instead of an opening
statement, I just want to read a 2-page letter which I think
describes better than I possibly could the urgency of dealing
with education issues. It is from a young woman. She starts in
her letter, she wrote to me:
I grew up poor, considered backwards by non-Indians. My
home was a two-room log house in a placed called The Bush on
North Dakota's Turtle Mountain Reservation. I stuttered. I was
painfully shy. My clothes were hand-me-downs. I was like
thousands of other Indian kids growing up on reservations
across America.
When I went to elementary school, I felt alone and
different. I could not speak for myself. My teachers had no
appreciation of Indian culture. I will never forget that it was
the lighter-skinned kids who were treated better. They were
usually from families better off than mine. My teachers called
me ``savage.'' Even as a young child I wondered what does it
take to be noticed and looked upon the way these other children
are.
By the time I reached 7th grade, I realized if my life was
going to change for the better, I was going to have to do it.
Nobody could do it for me. That is when the dream began. I
thought of ways to change things for the better, not only for
myself, but for my people. I dreamed of growing up, of being a
teacher, where every child was treated sacred and viewed
positively, even if they were poor and dirty. I did not want
any child to be made to feel like I did, but I did not know how
hard it would be to reach the realization of my dreams.
I almost did not make it. By the time I was 17, I had
dropped out of school, moved to California, had a child. I
thought my life was over. But when I moved back to the
reservation, I made a discovery that literally helped me put my
life back together. My sisters were attending Turtle Mountain
Tribal College which had just started on the reservation. I
thought it was something I could do, too, so I enrolled.
In those days, we did not even have a campus. There was no
building. Some classes met at a local alcohol rehabilitation
center, an old hospital building that had been condemned. To
me, it did not matter. I was just amazed I could go to college.
It was life-changing.
My college friends and professors were like family, and for
the first time in my life I learned about the language,
history, and culture of my people in a formal setting. I felt
honor and pride begin to well-up inside me.
Her letter goes on, and she said:
I loved college so much that I could not stop. I had a
dream to fulfill or perhaps an obsession.
It turns out, this young women is now a Ph.D. involved in
Indian education and the administration of a number of
different schools. What a remarkable story that she sent to me
in her letter. Her name is Loretta. I have known Loretta for
some while.
This letter describes from the standpoint of a young girl
and now a grown woman who has her Ph.D. It describes the
importance of education. Yes, in her life, but I think also in
a broader scale the importance of education in lifting people
out of poverty, lifting people from hopelessness and
helplessness to opportunity.
I wanted to read this letter. I have read it once before,
but it so well describes, I think better than any of us can,
the importance of education in the lives of young Indian
children. It is why we must focus on education in a way that
puts together the kind of success stories that we know can
happen and will happen if we make the right kind of decisions
with respect to education policy.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for letting me do that.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Dorgan. It is
compelling testimony.
Our first panel is Jim Cason, who is the associate deputy
secretary for Indian Affairs. He is accompanied by Ed Parisian,
who is the acting director of the Office of Indian Education
Programs. Victoria Vasques is the director of the Office of
Indian Education of the Department of Education.
Welcome, Mr. Cason. Why don't we begin with you.
STATEMENT OF JIM CASON, ASSOCIATE DEPUTY SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT
OF THE INTERIOR, ACCOMPANIED BY
ED PARISIAN, ACTING DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Mr. Cason. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman. I
really appreciate the opportunity to be here to discuss Indian
education and the status of the program.
I am sitting in here as associate deputy secretary with the
duties and responsibilities of the assistant secretary, pending
a search for same. I am accompanied here with Ed Parisian, who
is the deputy director, basically leading the Indian education
program.
We have been going through a process, Mr. Chairman, over
the last 3 months taking a look at Indian education and the
results we produce and the funds flow we get through the
program to try and improve our results. What we are finding
basically is that our school system is not producing the
results that are acceptable. Out of the 184 schools that we
have, only one-third of them are meeting AYP targets right now,
the adequate yearly progress goals of No Child Left Behind.
That is clearly not sufficient.
So we have a big job ahead of us to figure out why it is
that we are only producing those kind of results, and do the
job to take care of it.
There are a couple of things that we have started with that
I would like to just share with the committee, and we can
discuss at whatever length you would like to. The first is, we
are seeing this as a job where we have to buckle down, roll up
our sleeves, and get results in this program that we do not
have right now. What we are trying to do at this point is to
partner with the Department of Education to make sure that we
are clear about what actions need to be taken and what results
we need to get on an item-by-item basis so that we have a clear
plan and a concerted effort on the part of the Administration
to get results.
We are working closely with the Department of Education now
on reviewing our program, developing an action plan that
includes the elements that are important to meet our statutory
requirements, and to make sure we are in concert on the most
important items that need to be addressed first.
So with that, I appreciate Vickie Vasques being here. She
is part of the team in trying to improve the performance we
have in the program.
Second, we are developing an action plan in concert with
DOE. The action plan is broad and includes a lot of elements.
That action plan was initially developed by the Department of
the Interior and has been shared with the Department of
Education. They are very graciously sharing it with their
senior staff to give us suggestions on how to improve that.
We are going through a process now of mapping out and flow-
charting all of the funds flow that goes through our education
program. We have identified about 50 different streams of
funding that go through the program. We are mapping out what
all the requirements are for those streams and what performance
is expected from them. And then we are looking at school
construction to see what we can do to accelerate the pace of
school construction to effectively and efficiently use up the
unobligated balances that we have and actually get results of
bricks and mortar buildings that are available for schools.
We have an assignment going on right now with our education
line officers. We have them all in this week and we are going
through the process of trying to get ahead of the curve right
now for 2005-06 education school year. We have provided to our
education line officers all the accountability workbooks on a
State-by-State basis where our schools are located so that they
become very clear very early in the process of what standards
they have to meet in order to pass our schools through the AYP
goal line.
They have an assignment to go back to each school that they
have a relationship with to share the accountability workbook
standards, to be clear about what is expected on a school-by-
school basis, to examine where we are currently, do the gap
analysis between our current performance and what performance
is acceptable, and develop a school-by-school action plan as to
how we can drive that school across the goal line.
That assignment needs to be done in about the next 2 months
before we start the 2005-06 school year. I am looking forward
to seeing the results from that so that we can be a proactive
element in improving performance.
Last, Mr. Chairman, I would like to share that this is a
commitment from the Secretary on down. We had Secretary Norton
in with our education line officers yesterday so that she could
tell them personally that this is an important thing for us to
get done; that educating these Indian kids is an important
thing and that is a mission we need to do better at.
With that, we would be happy to work with the committee in
the future and I appreciate the opportunity to be here.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Cason appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Ms. Vasques.
STATEMENT OF VICTORIA VASQUES, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INDIAN
EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Ms. Vasques. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the
committee. On behalf of Secretary Spellings, let me thank you
for this opportunity to appear before you to discuss the
current status of Indian education.
I serve as the assistant deputy secretary and director for
the Office of Indian Education. I am also from the San Pasqual
Band of Mission Indians in Southern California. I am here, as
you mentioned, with my colleagues Darla Marburger and Tom
Corwin.
Today, I will provide an overview on the educational
performance of American Indian and Alaska Native students from
their early childhood years, for elementary and secondary
education, and through the post-secondary education level.
Collecting accurate data on the American Indian and Alaska
Native population has been a long-term challenge for the
department. Indian students are a highly diverse group. There
are over 560 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
Indian students, though, constitute a very small portion of
the overall student population, and many Indian families reside
in small towns and rural areas. For these reasons, it is
difficult for any study to include a sufficient number of
Indian students to yield accurate, high-quality data.
I am pleased that the department in recent years has taken
major action to collect, analyze and report useful high-quality
data on the education status and needs of our Indian students.
Our efforts have covered the schools operated or funded by the
BIA, other schools that have high concentrations of Indian
students, and Indian children and adults more generally.
One example of this activity is our over-sampling of
American Indian students in the national assessment of
educational programs, NAEP, in order to generate adequate
representation of Indian students in the NAEP. This will give
us reliable national-level data on Indian students' performance
in reading and math, adding a whole new subgroup of students to
the Nation's report card.
Indian students constitute about 1 percent of all students
enrolled in public schools and often attend rural schools. Over
one-half of all Indian students attend schools in small towns
and rural areas. In 2002, there were approximately 628,000
American Indian and Alaska Native students in public elementary
and secondary schools, including BIA schools. Approximately
582,000, over 90 percent, attended public schools, and 46,000
attended schools administered by the BIA.
Department of Education programs contribute a significant
amount of funding to the BIA for the education of Indian
students who attend BIA schools. The department has a
longstanding partnership with the BIA over the administration
of these programs. We expect to sign a new MOA, memorandum of
agreement with the BIA covering No Child Left Behind issues
very soon.
My written statement provides many of the key statistics on
various aspects of the educational status of American Indians
and Alaska Natives. I will highlight just a few of them.
First, the overall data from NAEP on Indian students show
that their performance continues to lag below the national
average on reading, math and science assessments. This is true
for both 4th and 8th grade assessments. It is clear we have our
work cut out for us in closing the achievements gaps. It is
important to note, however, that before 2002 NAEP did not
consistently assess enough Indian students to provide reliable
information about their performance. The department has
embarked on an effort to ensure that NAEP produces more
reliable national-level data on the performance of Indian
students. We now have a benchmark to measure Indian students'
academic progress through the years.
Our work also supports the department's accountability
efforts. Disaggregated data are a key tenet of the
accountability embedded in the No Child Left Behind Act. We
will use NAEP data to measure the performance of Indian
students and the programs that serve them over time.
Second, I am pleased to report that in some States,
including Arizona and North Dakota, we are seeing meaningful
gains in achievement by Indian students.
Third, high school dropout rates for Indian students
continue to be too high. In addition, Indian students often
have higher rates of absenteeism, suspension and expulsion than
others.
Fourth, with respect to higher education, the number of
Indian students enrolling in colleges and universities has more
than doubled in the last 25 years or so. The number of degrees
awarded to Indian students increased dramatically between 1976
and 2002.
Mr. Chairman, the department is making a serious effort to
produce up to date, high-quality data about Indian students. We
have been working to collect and release data on this
population so that we know how Indian students are doing and
can adjust policies and provide resources to address the needs
that the data show are most critical. We plan to publish four
important documents on American Indian and Alaska Native
students by the end of the year. One report will contain an
overview of demographic characteristics of Indian students and
further analysis of Indian student performance along a number
of key indicators.
Another will address the demographic and family
characteristics and early mental and physical development of 9-
month-old American Indian and Alaska Native children. Two other
reports, one on post-secondary education and Indian students,
and another consisting of a special analysis of decennial
census data on the Indian population are planned for release
later in the year.
Next year, we will release special NAEP reports that will
provide information about the educational experience of
American Indian and Alaska Native students and the role of
their Indian culture in their education.
Before I conclude, I would like to take 1 minute to talk
about how NCLB holds great promise for improving the education
and academic achievement of Indian students. Its emphasis on
stronger accountability for all students and the use of
desegregated data ensure that schools address the needs of all
their students, including those of Indian students. NCLB's
emphasis on teacher quality will require that all students,
including Indian students, are taught by highly qualified
teachers who are certified, hold a bachelor's degree, and have
demonstrated knowledge of their subject matter.
President Bush's Executive order which recognizes the
unique educational and culturally related academic needs of
Indian students will assist us in implementing NCLB. My office
has taken a lead role in the implementation of that order. The
department, in partnership with the Department of the Interior,
just convened a national conference this past April which
brought together representatives from Federal agencies, State
educational agencies, tribal educational agencies and local
officials. At the conference, we discussed how to implement
NCLB in a manner that is consistent with tribal traditions,
culture and language.
It identified five key areas: Closing the achievement gap
and appropriate assessment of Indian students; training and
developing American Indian and Alaska Native teachers;
promoting continuity of tribal traditions, language and
culture; scientifically based research on Indian education and
the training of American Indian and Alaska Native researchers;
local, tribal, State, and Federal collaboration.
The department's work in the immediate future will focus on
developing solutions, strategies, resources and technical
assistance in the areas for agencies that serve Indian
children. There are significant achievement gaps between the
American Indian and Alaska Native student population and the
general population. Although Indian students have made some
progress in recent decades and score higher than some other
major ethnic and racial groups on some indicators, the Indian
student population continues to be subject to significant risk
factors that threaten their ability to improve their academic
achievement and their general well being.
Strategies to improve their education will need to take
into account these risk factors, as well as the challenges of
educating a culturally diverse population in rural and remote
areas. Our efforts to collect reliable data on the Indian
population have yielded a number of useful data sources that
can be used to hold educational agencies that serve these
students, and us, accountable for the performance of Indian
students across this Nation.
In closing, I applaud you, Mr. Chairman, and the other
members of this committee for steadfastly confronting the
challenges facing Indian education. I look forward to working
with you, Mr. Cason and our tribal leadership as we reach a
solution or solutions to ensure that future generations of our
Indian students are not left behind.
I thank you for this opportunity and I welcome your
questions.
[Prepared statement of Ms. Vasques appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Cason, on September 4, 2003 the GAO delivered its
report to Congress as required by the No Child Left Behind Act,
noting that BIA schools have certain characteristics that make
them more costly to operate than the average public school. I
certainly accept that thesis. The GAO noted, quote, ``the
agency has little financial data to use in forming the budget
that Interior proposes to the Congress.'' The GAO concluded the
BIA has no formal mechanisms such as a needs assessment for
determining how much funding is needed for instruction or
transportation. Have you addressed those issues, Mr. Cason?
Mr. Cason. Mr. Chairman, I do not know how completely they
have been addressed. I will have Ed comment on that as well. He
is probably more familiar with it. One thing that we are doing,
though, Mr. Chairman, to make sure we get a comprehensive look
at the evaluations that have been made about the education
program is we are going through a process of pulling all the
GAO reports, IG reports from the Department of the Interior, IG
reports from the Department of Education and any other external
evaluation that has been done. We are going through a process
of cataloging all the funding recommendations from all those
reports to actually give a definitive answer on what steps have
been taken to implement responses to all of them.
So I know we have that effort ongoing. I have seen a draft
of that. I do not know in this particular case what has been
done.
So Ed, could you comment on that?
The Chairman. That is a pretty fundamental and important
issue that we do not have a needs assessment for determining
how much funding is needed for instruction or transportation.
Mr. Parisian, do you want to comment?
Mr. Parisian. Yes; good morning, Mr. Chairman and members
of the panel.
What we are doing presently is putting together a data
system nationally where we can collect that information. We do
not have that currently available. We have a contract out. We
hope to have that up by July 2006. Part of that GAO report had
to do with getting information from our tribal grant schools.
We need to work with them more closely to get accurate
information that we can put into our data system so that we
have it across the board, not just for our bureau-operated
schools, but for the tribal grant schools that we also provide
service to.
The Chairman. You have 64 schools operated by the BIA?
Mr. Parisian. Sir, 62 bureau-operated schools and 122 grant
and contract schools.
The Chairman. And it is going to take you until July 2006
to find out what the instruction and transportation needs are
for these schools? Please.
Ms. Vasques, it is interesting that you were testifying to
all the things that you are going to do to comply with NCLB. It
was signed into law three-and-a-half years ago by the President
of the United States. What have you done so far to implement
NCLB?
Ms. Vasques. Sir, we have gone out and met with all of
our----
The Chairman. So you have had meetings. Good.
Ms. Vasques. Well, we have also been working with the BIA
on their No Child Left Behind negotiated rulemaking. We have
been working with the States.
The Chairman. Have they completed that rulemaking?
Ms. Vasques. Yes, sir; it was just finalized 1 week ago.
Mr. Cason. Sir, the final regulations came into effect May
31, 2005.
Ms. Vasques. We have also been working very closely with
the Counsel of Chief State School Officers, which are the State
Chiefs that oversee the public education systems. They have now
formed a Native American task force to work with us where we
have highly populated areas of Indian students in their
particular States. I think that was an area, in all honesty,
that was missing in these discussions with No Child Left
Behind.
We see a lot of progress going from the State Chiefs and
many Governors that are working with us on the challenges of No
Child Left Behind, especially in those communities where the
public----
The Chairman. You are working with Governors to determine
the needs on Indian reservations?
Ms. Vasques. No; the Chief State Schools are working with
their Governors because they are working for the State.
The Chairman. What role does the State play in the
administration of a BIA school?
Ms. Vasques. I am speaking for the public schools, sir.
The Chairman. The purpose of this hearing is to discuss the
state of Indian education.
Ms. Vasques. Yes, sir; 90-some percent of our Indian
students attend the public schools.
The Chairman. I understand that. We are talking about BIA
schools.
Ms. Vasques. We are working very closely with Jim Cason on
the issues that he reported to you earlier on helping assist
them with their action plan. He sat in a meeting with us with
our senior-level officials and allowed us to be brutally honest
on the issues that the Department of Education has with the BIA
on their high-risk areas. For example, we are working with him
on their program performance, their program outcomes, helping
them with their human capital. We see a lot of issues with high
turnover, teacher quality, management, the accountability
assessment.
The Chairman. What is the average salary of a teacher at a
BIA-administered school, Ms. Vasques? An entry-level salary?
Ms. Vasques. I do not know that answer.
The Chairman. Are you familiar with an Office of Inspector
General report that says the central office of the Office of
Indian Education has not adequately managed its administrative
funds, resulting in a failure to maximize monies available for
distribution to Indian schools? Are you familiar with that
report?
Ms. Vasques. Somewhat, I am.
The Chairman. Has any action been taken?
Ms. Vasques. Several of our program offices are working
very closely with the BIA to make sure that there is corrective
action taking place with several fiscal years of funding.
The Chairman. Senator Dorgan.
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
I am trying to understand this. I have heard the testimony
here, Mr. Cason and Ms. Vasques. Some of it does not sound to
me like it is in English. You are talking about all these
acronyms and these programs and the coordination. I know money
is not everything, but I do not understand what is happening
with respect to funding. You do not have a needs assessment
yet. I have been to many of these schools, as have my
colleagues. We understand the shape they are in. We have GAO
reports and Inspector General's reports that describe the
desperate need to bring these BIA schools up to standards.
Yet, let me go through the recommendations. Let me start
with the tribal colleges. The President suggested we cut tribal
colleges by $10 million. Is that a step forward or a step
backward? What is the basis for saying we ought to cut funding
for tribal colleges?
Mr. Cason. Is that 2006 spending, Senator, that you are
talking about?
Senator Dorgan. Yes; the President's budget recommends
cutting $10 million from the previously appropriated level of
funding for tribal colleges. How does that advance Indian
education?
Mr. Cason. Taken in microcosm, I think you would say it
probably does not. But as you know, Senator, when we go through
the budgeting process, there are lots of considerations that
enter into the decisions about where you place money, what the
priorities are. The budgeting process with Indian country ends
up being one that starts with a BIA tribal budget committee
meeting. There is lots of discussion about what the relative
priorities are there.
There are discussions within the Department of the
Interior, balancing the BIA budget against all the other
budgets in the department. It goes to OMB and it comes up to
Congress. There are lots of people that have a role in the
process.
Senator Dorgan. I understand that process.
Mr. Cason. So if you just look at it in a microcosm and
that is the only consideration in developing a budget, you
would have, say, 1 dozen. Within the broader context of all the
priorities we have, I am not sure who influenced the process to
arrive at that conclusion in the past budget.
Senator Dorgan. It sounds to me like you are saying do not
take a close look. ``Microcosm'' is a close look.
Mr. Cason. No; it needs a close look.
Senator Dorgan. Well, a close look would suggest that the
President's budget cut funding for tribal colleges by $10
million; cut funding for replacement school construction from
$105 million to $43 million; and cut funding for facilities and
improvement repair. I do not understand this. How can you come
and talk about a commitment to education when you look at these
cuts, yet we know the needs are so great. And then you say,
well, you can't look at it that way. You are taking a close
look. You are looking it in microcosm.
All I know is that Donald Trump is going to get another big
tax cut if the priorities that exist through the process you
described somehow prevail.
With tribal colleges, for example, or facilities
improvement repair of these schools that are in desperate need
of repair, and you know what the GAO and the IGs have said, all
I know is that if you take a close look, and that is what we
are trying to do this morning, this does not meet the test of
commonsense. I am just asking the question, who makes these
decisions and why? And do you support the decisions?
Mr. Cason. Well, Senator, on this particular issue about
the school construction, as I recall you and I had that
discussion when I testified on the budget, that for 2006 the
underlying rationale for the cuts in that program were
associated with the pace at which we are getting school
construction done. Within that, we had a very large unobligated
balance in the school construction fund. So basically, we were
looking at trying to get caught up in getting these schools
constructed we already had funding for which we had not been
able to get done.
If you go back and look at it historically, the President
has placed a huge amount of emphasis on additional school
construction. If I recall the figures correctly, we have
invested somewhere on the order of $1.5 billion new dollars
into the process or asked for and Congress has been gracious
enough to give us about $1.5 billion over the last four years
for new school construction. That was a substantial increase
over the amount of monies that were available in the prior 8
years.
We have been attempting to increase our ability or capacity
to build schools much faster and get those dollars used
effectively. That is exactly what we are doing right now, to be
able to use the unobligated balances during 2006.
Senator Dorgan. Well, all I know is that this does not add
up. Mr. Chairman, I am the Ranking Member on the Interior
Appropriations Subcommittee. We just marked up that bill. We
are spending $500 million less than we spent last year. This is
not a cut in the rate of growth. We had $500 million less than
we had the previous year. We have a fiscal policy that is just
off the tracks.
So what happens? Indian children who go to these schools
are going to pay the price for it because we are not willing to
own up to the needs. I think the chairman sitting next to me
seemed to express some concern, perhaps that is too mild a
word, at the fact that we do not have a needs assessment. A
needs assessment ought to be the first criteria here. This is a
needs assessment for the welfare of children. These are little
kids that we send to these schools.
I have seen these schools. I have been to these schools. I
have talked on the floor of the Senate about a school with 150
kids, one water fountain, two bathrooms, desks an inch apart.
The fact is, we have to do better. I am not very impressed with
the priorities. I do look at this in a microcosm, but if you
are trying to run a tribal college system to give hope for
people to get up and out of poverty and get training and skills
and education, and then you see a recommendation saying let's
cut it by $10 million, what kind of commitment is that to that
system?
I happen to think tribal colleges are enormously important
because they allow people to go to college who otherwise could
not go, because in their communities where they have extended
families and can get child care and the other things, this
system works. It allows people to go to college who otherwise
would not get a college education.
So I am just expressing some frustration that all the nice
sounds you are making this morning are not matched by the
commitment to fund that which we need to fund, in my judgment.
Mr. Cason. Thank you, Senator. I think we both agree there
is an important mission for us to serve in Indian Affairs at
the Department of Education in getting Indian kids educated.
That is an important mission and clearly, as I said in my
opening statement, we are not doing enough to get the results
that we need in that program.
So we are going back to basically look at what is it that
are the causal factors for why we are not being successful. If
funding is one of those issues, that will be something on the
plate with the Secretary and I to talk about.
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, let me ask consent that a
statement from Senator Inouye be entered in the record at the
start of the hearing.
The Chairman. Without objection.
Senator Thomas, welcome.
STATEMENT OF HON. CRAIG THOMAS, U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING
Senator Thomas. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sorry I was a little late and did not hear it all. We had
some energy things going on, as you know, but I am very much
interested in Indian education, of course.
We have one BIA school on our reservations. I think 90
percent of our Indian kids go to the other kind of schools, as
a matter of fact. I am a little surprised to hear a little bit.
I did not know that some of these things had an impact so much
on it. I understand that there has been a $3.6 billion increase
since 2001 for Indian education. In our State, we spend about
$8,000 per pupil and the Indian schools spend over $9,000. Of
course, spending is easy, but I did not know Bill Gates had
anything to do with it, Frankly.
Senator Dorgan. It is Donald Trump.
Senator Thomas. Oh, Donald Trump. I am sorry. I got
confused.
Senator Dorgan. I could mention Bill Gates, though.
[Laughter.]
Senator Thomas. You mentioned trying to find some
solutions. Just in broad terms, what do you think are the basic
problems facing us in terms of Native American education? Just
shortly form all three of you, very quickly, what are the major
problems facing us?
Ms. Vasques. It is important, and I apologize, Mr.
Chairman, to not focus just on the BIA schools. It is important
to note that the Department of Education provides almost 25
percent of the Office of Indian Education program dollars for
their education efforts. We also have seen major increases in
the past few years in their special education and title I
dollars.
On the question that you ask----
Senator Thomas. What do you think are the basic challenges
facing you?
Ms. Vasques. For us, I would have to say making education
the number one priority for not only this committee, but our
tribal leadership. Whenever I go out and speak, my number one
challenge to those that will listen is to challenge our tribal
leaders to put education on their agenda. Many times, I am
asked to speak and I am at a sub-level meeting and not the
General Assembly. Education, as you all have said so
eloquently, should be number one on our agenda, on everyone's
agenda. It is the answer to our economic prosperity.
Senator Thomas. I am assuming you are saying it is not.
Ms. Vasques. I think it is our number one agenda. I know it
is our number one agenda, but I do not know if I feel that it
is the number on agenda out there when I am working in the
field.
Senator Thomas. Mr. Cason.
Mr. Cason. Senator, I have maybe a little different view
within the Department of the Interior for the Indian education
program. I think, first, there is not a clear set of
expectations about roles and responsibilities to get the
results that we need. We have a fairly complicated environment.
Some of the schools are run by BIA directly and 122 of our
schools are run through tribal grants where the tribe is
essentially responsible for running the school.
It is not entirely clear throughout the organization and
with the tribes as to what the roles and responsibilities are
to give performance results; what is acceptable; what is not
acceptable; and having any clear mechanisms to do something
about the unacceptable. So that is something we need to
develop.
Second, I think profile is part of the issue, that
currently the education program resides within BIA, but it has
not been the principal focus of BIA as opposed to other issues
like trust, providing welfare services and general assistance.
It is certainly an important program, but it has not had the
profile that maybe it needs. That is one of the issues that we
are taking a look at changing.
Third, I think that local socio-economic considerations are
a driver; that as this committee probably knows, Indian country
in general is one of our poorest sub-populations. I was
speaking with the director of BIA this morning. He had just
gotten back from Pine Ridge and he told me that the
unemployment rate on Pine Ridge is 89 percent. That is a
terrible situation for us and it is a terrible situation from
which you can send children to get them educated and have the
kind of family support that they really need to participate in
educational programs.
Family support is a key issue, that there has to be an
expectation on the role of parents to encourage their children
to be in school, to participate in school, to excel at school.
I know I have to do that with mine and it takes parents
everywhere to be active participants in the process. In some
cases where you do not have parents doing that, it becomes a
problem.
I think another area that is important for us is the
leadership of the program within Interior. Right now, we are
sitting in a position that Ed represents the only SES person in
the Indian Education Program. We have about 5,000 employees
there, and Ed is the SES person. So that is one of the issues
that we are taking a look at, to add some leadership capability
into the organization. That is not completely defined yet, but
that is one of the things that we need to get done.
Senator Thomas. Thank you. I have taken more than my time.
Sorry.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Senator Johnson.
STATEMENT OF HON. TIM JOHNSON, U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
Senator Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
you and Senator Dorgan for holding this hearing.
A special welcome to Dr. Roger Bordeaux, who is
superintendent at Tiospa Zina School located on our Sisseton-
Wahpeton Reservation. I look forward to his testimony.
I have competing obligations and will not be able to stay
for the entire hearing, but there are a couple of points I want
to raise and questions I have today.
First, obviously, we must retain the appropriate area and
agency technical support of our BIA schools. We have to be
assured that the AYP does not realign or reduce the regional
line officers in our region. If realignment is deemed
necessary, I think this has to be done with true consultation
with our affected tribal parties.
Second, we continue to have financial problems and
disagreements in South Dakota. Currently, the St. Francis and
the Enemy Swim Schools have reached the construction stage, but
we continue to have conflicts with the BIA over square-footage
issues. We are at great risk of building new schools that will
be inadequate from day one because of the square-footage
issues. I know Enemy Swim in particular had an agreement with
BIA and then the BIA seems to have reneged on its agreement
about the square-footage being involved. I may submit written
questions to you for a response to that.
Another more immediate problem that is of great urgency has
to do with our Crow Creek School on the Crow Creek Reservation.
The dormitory for the Crow Creek School literally burnt to the
ground. It is gone. The BIA has said that they can have some
money that they have held back for gymnasium reconstruction,
which is a separate matter. They have provided a modest amount
of money, most of which will go for tearing down the burnt-out
facility and taking care of the damage there. A small amount
will be left for emergency dormitory space that they will have
to put in this summer.
However, the BIA has come up $4 million short for what is
necessary for that temporary dormitory space. As a consequence,
a good share of the students who attend Crow Creek will not
longer be able to attend Crow Creek. That means that their
budget falls off, the funding drops off, which means that they
are going to have to fire faculty and staff because they are
not going to have the budget for this fall.
I am immensely frustrated that in an emergency situation
like this, that reprogrammed or some sort of money could not be
made available in order to at least accommodate the dormitory
needs at Crow Creek so that they can open school this fall.
Time is running. If we start now, it is going to be difficult
to get all of this done. There is a South Dakota corporation
working with the Governor that has volunteered to put Crow
Creek at the head of the line for the temporary housing space,
but I see just utter inaction on the part of the BIA at this
point about what are you going to do about the Crow Creek
School with the crisis that they have right now, if they are
going to in fact be up and running this summer.
Now, Crow Creek is number nine on the facilities list, so
ultimately I am certain they will get a new proper school, but
what do you do between now and the fall? This is a matter of
great urgent crisis that frankly the BIA has not been
responsive about. I find this enormously frustrating.
Let me ask Mr. Cason, what should we do? What should the
people of Crow Creek do and what should their children do?
Mr. Cason. Well, Senator, I am pleased that you brought
that up. That is an issue that I dealt with personally so I
have a substantially different view of the circumstances than
you have just expressed. In fact, the BIA started working on
providing assistance immediately after the fire. Our SES staff
person in charge of facilities, a guy named Jack Reiver was in
contact with the tribe immediately thereafter to assess what
their needs were.
We had extensive discussions with a person for the tribe. I
talked to the tribal chairman myself. I talked to the guy for
the tribe that actually works on the schools, that is in charge
of the schools. I talked to the Governor's staff person, I
think it was his chief of staff, that was working on this
issue.
Basically, what we tried to work out was a partnering
relationship, who could contribute what, to get them back up.
The objective shared by all was to ensure that they could be
back in operation August of this year, so that they could have
a complete school year. That basically entailed providing a
replacement temporary dining facility and kitchen, which the
BIA is contributing. It also involved dormitory space, as you
mentioned.
The issue on the dormitory space is we very carefully
looked at what the need was in light of being a temporary
solution. What we found is that at the beginning of the last
school year, there were approximately 200 students that were
dormed; that at the time of the fire there were approximately
120 students that were dormed; that in the aftermath of the
fire, the tribe managed to house the approximately 40 to 50
students who were brought in off-reservation from other
reservations at a local hotel facility, and that they were able
to successfully employ a busing program to bus all the other
students that had been living in the dorm, but actually lived
on the reservation.
So we had some flexibility in how we addressed the issue.
The critical mass was basically the 40 or 50 students from off
the reservation. We definitely needed space for them. We needed
space for another amount of students that lived on the
reservation, could have been bused, but maybe were not in
housing situations that were optimal.
What we worked out with the tribe is that we could
basically provide approximately $600,000 to build temporary
dorm space, the equivalent to about 120 students. We also
worked out with the tribe that if the Governor's office could
come through with another $300,000 on environmental assessment,
we would move our $300,000 that we had dedicated for that into
dormitory space. It is my understanding at this point that that
is what we are doing.
So we have not attempted to replicate in toto temporary
dormitory space equivalent to the maximum number of students
that had been in the dorm, but we tried to give a lot of
flexibility to the tribe by providing temporary dorm space that
would accommodate all of the off-reservation students and a
large number of on-reservation students who needed better
housing.
Senator Johnson. We will follow-up with you on that. I
appreciate that you have been in communication with the tribe.
One of the questions that was raised to me while I was
there, and I do not know if this is conveyed to me correctly or
not, but the school indicated and the tribe indicated to me
that previously the tribe had insured the school facility, that
they were directed by the BIA to drop their insurance. They did
maintain insurance on the contents, but not of the building
itself. Is that correct? Is that BIA policy to tell tribes not
to insure school facilities and BIA facilities?
Mr. Cason. I asked that same question, sir, and I do not
believe it is BIA policy, but we were trying to determine who
exactly told them that. We have not gotten a name on that yet,
so we tried to follow up on that because it is not our policy
to say, no, do not insure your buildings. Actually, we
recommend that they do insure their buildings.
Senator Johnson. I would appreciate your getting to the
bottom of this a little bit. It sounded sort of
counterintuitive, but I did want to see if you are pursuing in
fact what occurred in that situation.
Mr. Cason. We are. And Senator, would you mind if I just
follow-up on a couple of other things.
You had mentioned the name of a school that there was a
square-foot problem in. What is the name of that?
Senator Johnson. Yes; we have two schools. One is at St.
Francis and the other is at Enemy Swim. Enemy Swim is on the
Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation and St. Francis is on the
Rosebud.
Mr. Cason. So it is ``enemy'' as in a person I do not like?
Enemy Swim?
Senator Johnson. Yes; Enemy Swim.
Mr. Cason. Okay. We will follow-up on that.
Senator Johnson. I appreciate your following up on that.
My last comment, and I know that the committee needs to
move on, I really do think that, and I do not lay this blame at
the feet of the BIA particularly, but I am enormously
frustrated about our national priorities. The level of poverty
on our Indian reservations in South Dakota is simply immense.
It is breathtaking, the multiplicity of problems that these
people face and there is no silver bullet out there. I know
that.
But I do believe that education is one of the keys, from
early Head Start all the way through our tribal college
programs. We need a larger pool of Native American teachers and
nurses and managers and entrepreneurs who become role models
for other young people. We need more of a private sector
economic activity going on, and only education and job skills
can make that happen.
I share Senator Dorgan's concern about overall levels of
funding and priorities. He and I have worked on the college
funding issue, a $10 million recommendation for reduction in
funding. When you come back from Pine Ridge, Oglala Lakota
College is the college that happens to be on the Pine Ridge. We
have several. They are accredited. They are doing great work.
They are creating a new generation of leaders, but they are
operating on a per capita per student funding level of about
half of what a community college anywhere else in the country
would be expected to have.
It seems to me at a time when the Administration is talking
about a $10-million cut there, at the same time, and I know
some people do not like it when some of us bring this up, but
the cost of the extension of tax cuts given to people who make
over $1 million per year, not millionaires, people who make
over $1 million a year, the cost to the Treasury in fiscal year
2006 will be $32 billion drained out of the Treasury. And then
we say, well, we do not have $10 million for Indian kids to get
a college education.
I just find that mind-boggling as a priority for this, the
richest Nation on Earth, to be essentially pulling up the
ladder for academic success for a new generation of young
people who we are in dire need of to provide leadership on
these reservations. It is so penny-wise and pound-foolish and a
distortion of what I think really are values as Americans ought
to be. I share Senator Dorgan's distress about that. I know I
am talking into the wind here, but I simply cannot conclude my
remarks without making reference to the priorities and the
values that Senator Dorgan and I share.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Johnson.
I thank the witnesses. I would like to just comment as you
depart that you are in a process, according to your testimony,
in making various assessments, completing studies and plans of
action. We probably will have another hearing perhaps in the
fall to and maybe you can give us some more definitive results
at that time. It might be appropriate then.
Mr. Cason. That would be great, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. I thank the witnesses.
Ms. Vasques. Thank you.
The Chairman. The next panel is Nick Lowery. He is the
acting chairman of the National Fund for Excellence in American
Indian Education; David Beaulieu, who is the president of the
National Indian Education Association; Joe McDonald, who is the
president of the Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, MT. He is
representing the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
And Roger Bordeaux, who is the superintendent of Tiospa Zina
Tribal School and executive director of the Association of
Community Tribal Schools in Sisseton, SD.
I welcome the witnesses. All of your complete written
statements will be made part of the record. We will begin with
you, Mr. Lowery.
STATEMENT OF NICK LOWERY, ACTING CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL FUND FOR
EXCELLENCE IN AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION, INC.
Mr. Lowery. Good morning, Senator McCain. It is a true
honor to be here and to represent the outstanding board of
directors of the National Fund, one of whom is next to me.
I ask that a copy of my written testimony, along with the
attached proposed draft amendment language be accepted in the
record of this hearing.
The Chairman. Without objection.
Mr. Lowery. Thank you.
I represent the National Fund for Excellence in American
Indian Education, known as the National Fund. The National Fund
is a charitable foundation first authorized by Federal statute
almost 5 years ago and initially known as the American Indian
Education Foundation. I am here today to provide you with a
brief progress report, as well as to discuss certain changes to
our statutory charter that would provide the National Fund with
some essential administrative flexibility and better safeguard
its funding base and its purpose.
The National Fund was authorized by Public Law 107-568, the
Omnibus Indian Advancement Act of 2000. The primary purpose of
the National Fund is to encourage, accept and administer
donations to support the mission of the Office of Indian
Education Programs. There are currently an estimated 49,000
students in 184 schools, as you heard earlier. In addition,
perhaps as many as 900,000, if you believe the census, American
Indian students are educated in public schools in 50 States,
enrolled in about 10,000 school districts.
Like those in BIA schools, many often exist below the radar
screen of society. Most confront high rates of apathy,
alienation, alcoholism, teenage suicide, teenage pregnancy, and
gang violence. No one here, I believe, denies that more must be
done to reach, train, mentor and inspire our most precious
resource, and no one here, I believe, denies that we must do
more to help Native American youth embrace a robust self-
determination and higher destiny.
The history of our formation efforts have been problematic,
to say the least. When the foundation was authorized in late
2000, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to
appoint its board and provide it with financial support. There
are several models for the foundation in the sense that they
were initially created by Congress, given birth within an
agency such as Interior, with the intent and the eventual
result that they would become fully independent entities. Two
of those, the National Park Foundation and the Fish and
Wildlife Foundation are exemplified to my right.
The board was sworn in in March 2003. Since that time, we
have met on four occasions to set priorities and plan for the
future independence and effectiveness and impact of the
foundation. First, the name change. The initial obstacle in
incorporating into filing the necessary application for
nonprofit tax-exempt status was the discovery in November 2002
that another organization held prior and superior legal rights
to the same name, the American Indian Education Foundation,
given our foundation by Congress in late 2000.
It took us a full year, Mr. Chairman, to change our name,
which is now the National Fund. We are grateful to former
Chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell and other members of this
committee, as well as Representative Rick Renzi for assistance
in securing the name change. It should be noted that during
this time, there was nominal support from the Department of the
Interior for the name change.
The National Fund was incorporated in the District of
Columbia in July 2004. Subsequent to that, as soon as its name
change statute was signed and shortly thereafter, we filed our
application for nonprofit tax-exempt status. In November 2004,
we received our determination letter from the Internal Revenue
Service.
Let me just go briefly over the obstacles we need to remove
to allow us to achieve effectiveness and impact on some of
those issues that were addressed earlier today. At this point,
the board of directors of the National Fund has identified
several obstacles. What follows is our description.
First of all, redesignation of the chief operating officer.
The authorizing statute oddly requires the chief operating
officer of the foundation, who is Dave Beaulieu, actually, that
he must be a board member who is secretary to the board of
directors.
A second is adjustment to the ceiling set on administrative
costs. As you see from this chart, neither the National Park
Foundation, the Fish and Wildlife Foundation, indeed we know of
no similar restrictions being placed upon other similar
fundraising organizations that need to spend money in order to
raise money.
We might suggest that the most efficient way to do this
would be to extend the section 501(l) of the original
legislation, which is a waiver, and extend that through fiscal
year 2007. Any number of articles, including an article from
the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana State mention the
importance of setting up effective infrastructure at the
beginning of an organization to make it achieve its mission.
Second, repeal of reimbursement requirements. Once again,
this is something that is not required of the National Park
Foundation or the Fish and Wildlife Foundation. We would like
to see this also repealed because fundamentally, we need to
maximize the dollars available, as you just talked about, for
the classroom and the hearts and minds of Native American
students, not simply to reimburse the Secretary of the
Interior.
Finally, requests for oversight assistance to transfer
donated funds. We met with Jim Cason yesterday and are trying
to work out transfer of funds. We hope this will be followed-
through on. We are optimistic that it will, but it has been
quite a problematic process. In addition to releasing these
funds in short order, which amount to only $200,000 at this
point, we will ask the committee and the Congress to work with
us to authorize and fund an endowment appropriation by which we
can begin to operate the National Fund and raise private
contributions and offer the program services that were in our
initial charter.
In conclusion, the National Fund's board of directors
desires this committee to know that despite all of the
obstacles identified along the way, we are proceeding as best
we can, given that we have no accessible resources. The actual
process of putting the organization together highlights new
challenges, all of which were unanticipated by the National
Fund's originators and sponsors. Without any funding, the
foundation board and staff have begun to identify private
sources of support and are drafting grant fund proposals that
will generate some revenue.
Our testimony reflects a summary of the concerns and
accomplishments of the board of directors of the National Fund
for Excellence in American Indian Education. The board took an
oath, Mr. Chairman, to serve the best interests of American
Indian education. We request the committee's help in modifying
the statute, as well as providing some assistance in gaining
greater financial support for the fund.
We have attached proposed draft legislation on the
statutory amendments. An estimated 60 percent of the 49,000
students in the 184 BIA schools are dropping out. Approximately
three-fourths of schools in the system are failing the No Child
Left Behind annual yearly progress standards. This does not
include the up to 900,000 potential Native students at non-BIA
schools. The time is now to do all we can to build as much
sense of urgency, leadership, vision and capacity into the
system as we can.
Mr. Chairman, I will conclude by simply saying we have an
outstanding board of directors. David Beaulieu, his track
record speaks for itself, as a former president. He is now the
current president of the National Indian Education Association.
He was the former director of Human Resources for the State of
Minnesota. Sharon Darling is a founder and president of the
National Center for Family Literacy. She is an internationally
recognized leader in the field of family literacy and has
raised $80 million for family literacy. John Guevremont is the
COO of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, of which he is a member
and which is taking a more national role in pursuing Indian
education benefits and improvements.
Regis Pecos is currently the chief of staff to the New
Mexico Speaker of the House. He is a Princeton graduate and is
the first American Indian appointed to the Board of Regents of
Princeton. Jo-Anne Stately is a member of the White Earth
Ojibway Tribe. She currently serves as president of the Native
Americans in Philanthropy and is overseeing millions of dollars
of grants for Native American projects. Linda Sue Warner
currently works as associate vice chancellor for the Tennessee
Board of Regents. She is a member of the Comanche Tribe of
Oklahoma.
And finally, Gwen Shunatona, who currently works as
director of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Education
Office. Myself, I worked in the Office of National Service for
President Bush and President Clinton. I was cofounder of Native
Vision, which is beginning today, actually, in New Mexico with
800 young athletes from 30 tribes. I am founder of Nation
Building for Native Youth, which is a leadership and self-
governance program in keeping with the vision of recently
departed Secretary of Indian Affairs Dave Anderson. I also
happened to play almost 20 years in the National Football
League, which I think actually has helped me see the impact
that role models can have on young people if they are given the
opportunity.
Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the board of directors, I wish
to extend to you and the members of the committee our gratitude
for this opportunity to testify at the hearing, and thank you
for the time and attention you have given us and our concerns.
Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Lowery appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Beaulieu.
STATEMENT OF DAVID BEAULIEU, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL INDIAN
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION
Mr. Beaulieu. Chairman McCain, members of the committee, my
name is David Beaulieu. I am a member of the Minnesota Chippewa
Tribe from the White Earth Reservation, and president of the
National Indian Education Association.
The National Indian Education Association has within the
last year begun to focus, and we encourage the committee to
also focus comprehensively on the needs of Native children in
light of the long and growing health and overall needs of
Native children. Mental health issues, including high levels of
substance abuse, suicide rates, poor housing and health
conditions all impact the capacity of Native children to learn
and schools to be responsive to their principal education
purposes. We must comprehensively develop strategies that
engage families, communities and tribes in every aspect of the
care and education of Native children.
Although the National Indian Education Association supports
the broad-based principles of accountability and documented
results of No Child Left Behind, there is widespread and
growing concern about the many obstacles that the NCLB presents
to Indian communities who often live in remote, isolated and
economically disadvantaged communities. Specifically as
detailed in our written testimony, we have identified many
factors that we think are important to note, specifically
financial resources. We believe that schools serving Native
students receive inadequate levels of funding. As noted in the
September 2003 GAO report on BIA schools, the student
population is characterized by factors that are generally
associated with higher costs in education.
We simply need monies to invest in Indian education. This
lack of investment, combined with the shortened time frame for
results and the focus on attempting to meet tests that often
are incompatible with actually documented results that are
being accomplished, are causing in a sense a train wreck. Our
schools are often feeling in crisis. Many positive and
wonderful aspects of the educational programs are being
eliminated to focus on tests and driving performance to test
results, without considering the broad-based quality of
educational programs serving Indian children.
Many of our school officials and others are reporting, or
parents and tribal leaders are reporting that students often
bear the responsibility of schools not being able to accomplish
results and are being identified as the reason why. There
appears to be a growing incongruence between the purposes of
title VII within No Child Left Behind and the general operating
principles, and consequently the implementation of NCLB by
States and the BIA for schools with Native students.
Title VII, which expresses a purpose of meeting the unique
education and culturally related needs of Native students so
that they can achieve the same high standard as other students
is not sustained or supported in the general operating
provisions of the statute in a way that will allow for the
development of congruent educational programs and services
consistent with the purposes of title VII. Instead, the
approach appears to be increasingly focused on providing extra
time for practice in teaching to the test.
In 1997, the GAO issued a report that documented an
inventory of repair needs for educational facilities totaling
$754 million. Since then, the backlog for construction and
repair is reported to have grown to $942 million. Completing
construction of a high school since 2001, while progress, is
not enough. The need for additional school construction dollars
is so great that there should be no slow-down in
appropriations. Instead, there should be an increased effort to
get tribes and the BIA to work more efficiently on completing
school construction projects, recognizing that schools take
time to plan and build.
On an average, the BIA education buildings are 60 years
old; 65 percent of BIA school administrators report one or more
school buildings in inadequate physical condition. NIEA
strongly opposes the realignment and restructuring of the
Office of Indian Education Programs within the BIA that will
cut the total number of education line officers from 23 to 11
and cut the funding of these offices by 18 percent. Since the
function of these offices has significantly increased due to
the passage of NCLB, NIEA believes the offices should be
expanded, rather than reduced, to ensure timely service to BIA
schools.
The National Indian Education Association opposes a
proposal by the Department of the Interior to decrease the
educational line officers and encourages the Department of the
Interior to work both with BIA-operated and tribal grant
schools on school improvement and efforts in training.
In addition, the NIEA requests the committee to probe the
Department of the Interior as to why the Office of the Director
of the Office of Indian Education Programs has remained vacant
for almost a full year. We understand there is an effort at the
BIA to elevate the director's position and I hope the position
will remain an Indian preference.
NIEA has been holding its own field hearings in Indian
country on the No Child Left Behind, and will publish a report
in October that outlines the information gathered at these
hearings and provides recommendations for legislative
amendments to existing law. We have held hearings at Window
Rock in the Navajo Nation; Tacoma in the Northwest; Montana;
Green Bay with the National Congress of American Indians; and
in Albuquerque. And we intend to hold hearings in Oklahoma and
in South Dakota as well.
Our constituency is becoming ever more alarmed. We are now
receiving testimony from tribal chairs and council people, as
well as educators, about their concerns with the statute and
what is happening to Indian education generally.
The National Indian Education Association encourages the
committee to conduct field hearings on NCLB and Indian
education in Indian country, and suggests that the committee
consider holding their own field hearings and include it at the
National Indian Education Association convention in October,
between the 6th and 9th, in Denver, CO.
In closing, true success in Native education will come only
when Native students are receiving high-quality education that
not only prepares them for the demands of contemporary society,
but also thoroughly grounds them in their own history, culture
and language.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Beaulieu appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Dr. McDonald, welcome.
STATEMENT OF JOE McDONALD, PRESIDENT, SALISH KOOTENAI COLLEGE,
REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN
INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONSORTIUM
Mr. McDonald. Thank you, Chairman McCain and distinguished
members of the committee.
On behalf of the 35 tribal colleges and universities which
make up the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, I
thank you for this opportunity to testify.
My name is Joe McDonald. I am a member of the Confederated
Salish Kootenai Tribe and president of Salish Kootenai College,
which is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Our
college was chartered in 1977 for the simple reason of the
near-complete failure of higher education in the United States
for American Indians.
In 1935, there were 570 American Indians in college. After
World War II, in 1957, there were 5,700 American Indians in
college. In 1968, we had 181 American Indians graduate from
college in the whole United States. There was a horrendous
report from GAO in 1976 on the condition of American Indians
and higher education. That led a lot to the formation of the
tribal colleges.
Our college has grown from a very small college to
relatively large among the tribal colleges. We offer 6 bachelor
degrees, 14 associate degrees, and 70 certificate programs.
Last Saturday at graduation, we awarded 161 degrees to American
Indians from 40 different tribes.
Over the past 30 years, the idea of tribal institutions of
education has spread throughout Indian country. Today, despite
severe budget cuts and inequities in Federal budgets, there are
35 tribal colleges and universities in 13 States, and we have
upwards of 30,000 students attending from 250 federally
recognized tribes.
I have some key issues I would like to discuss this
morning. One is general core funding. Despite trust
responsibilities and treaty obligations, the Government has
over the years not considered funding of American Indian higher
education a priority. For the past 24 years since the initial
funding of the Tribal College Act, we have been chronically
underfunded.
To illustrate the degree of inadequate funding, the current
authorized level for tribal college operations, which is $6,000
per Indian student, has the same buying power, when you
consider inflation, as the initial fiscal year 1981
appropriation which was $2,800 per student. Despite the much-
appreciated increases that Congress has appropriated over the
last several years, we are still receiving only about 75
percent of the authorized level.
What we would like to talk about is forward-funding. If the
tribal colleges' accounts were to be forward-funded when
appropriations are not completed by October 1 of any year,
which has become more the norm than an exception, we would not
have to identify emergency lines of credit. It is really
creating cash-flow problems at many of the tribal colleges, and
they have to borrow money then to continue until the money
comes to them. The delayed appropriations, or even less than
timely distribution of funds after appropriations are
completed, make it really difficult to plan and project
operating funding needs. It hamstrings us in many ways.
In short, when funds are not available on October 1, tribal
colleges many of them are forced into, a borrowing status. It
is a crisis of confidence with faculty, staff, with everyone.
So forward-funding would go a long ways for us.
The HEA title III is a very important program on us. It
affords us the ability to fulfill a vital role in providing
access to higher education. We would like to have formula
funding for title III. Tribal colleges would clearly benefit
from formula funding this program. Right now, they are
competitive grants and at the end of each competitive grant, we
have to realign ourselves and do something different. In the 5
years, you get something going, it is going well, then you have
to drop it and go to something else. It is competitive and it
may not even be awarded if you are not successful
competitively.
So if we could get that changed so TCU-title III became
formula-funded, it would be much better. Section 102 of S.
2539, a bipartisan bill introduced in the 108th Congress and
referred to this committee includes language that would
accomplish this recommendation.
The National Science Foundation TCU initiative was created
to help our institutions develop and expand high-quality
science, technology, engineering and mathematics called STEM.
We have had great success with STEM. We have encouraged a lot
of young Indian people to go into science and mathematics
fields. Colleges have increased their math participation
greatly as a result of STEM. Currently, the United States is
trending toward a shortage of scientists, mathematicians,
engineers, and researchers, and all of the Nation's
institutions of higher education must begin graduating more
students in science, engineering and mathematics or STEM
fields, or we will not have the workforce needed to stay
competitive.
To help remedy this, we propose the creation of a new
section under HEA Title III, Part A, to establish programs that
will allow for more efficient and effective application and
administration of STEM-related programs. So Mr. Chairman,
because NSF has committed increasingly more of its resources
towards expanding basic scientific research and strengthening
graduate programs, we believe the program should be moved to
the Department of Education, Office of Post-Secondary
Education, in conjunction with the tribal colleges' title III
program.
Equally as important as institutional development programs
are programs that focus on student development and capacity.
The Department of Education's TRIO student support service
program is critical to tribal colleges. However, the fiscal
year 2005 program competition resulted in 25 percent of the
tribal colleges that had student support service grants losing
their program funding. The grant-scoring cutoff for
institutions that would receive an award was 99.33, which is
very, very competitive.
In September 2003, the department recognized that many of
our institutions face any number of challenges to operating
high-quality accountable TRIO projects and awarded supplemental
grants to each of the tribal colleges that were administering a
student support services grant.
Simultaneously, the TRIO Training Institute at my
institution, Salish Kootenai College, received additional funds
to support the collective efforts of these colleges to improve
their TRIO-SSS projects. So we did this and we did this very,
very successfully. We worked with AIHEC. We worked with the
Council for Opportunity in Education. We used the successful
TRIO program officers throughout universities and colleges in
America. In a short time, the project had made tremendous
progress we really made a lot of improvement in these programs.
So we would like Congress to encourage the Department of
Education to extend for a minimum of 2 years the funding of
these programs.
I know that Mr. Parisian talked about data. We have been
collecting our own data under a program called American Indian
Measures of Success [AIMS]. We are very excited about it
because it not only takes into consideration the data that the
BIA requires, but also takes into consideration what IPEDS
wants. We think that we are on to something. We have not seen
the final product, but we think that it contains all the data
that we would need. We encourage Congress to consider that AIMS
data collections be adopted as a primary mechanism for data
collection for all TCU Federal programs.
The Chairman. Dr. McDonald, you are far exceeding your
time, but please proceed.
Mr. McDonald. Okay, really quickly.
Technical assistance contracts, we would like to make sure
that when a technical assistance contract is awarded by a
Federal department to help an Indian program, that it be
awarded to an Indian organization or somebody that understands
Indians.
I am sorry for exceeding my time, Senator. Thank you.
[Prepared statement of Mr. McDonald appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Not at all, Doctor. Your complete statement
is made part of the record. I did have a chance to read it last
night and I thank you for not only your testimony, but your
outstanding efforts on behalf of Native American education.
Dr. Bordeaux.
STATEMENT OF ROGER BORDEAUX, SUPERINTENDENT OF TIOSPA ZINA
TRIBAL SCHOOL AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ASSOCIATION OF
COMMUNITY TRIBAL SCHOOLS, INC.
Mr. Bordeaux. Mr. Chairman, thank you for giving me the
opportunity to come into town today and testify. I am a Si
Tanka Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota and
currently working for the Sisseton-Wahpeton up in North and
South Dakota, in the northeastern part.
I would like to first respond to something that you said
and something that Mr. Cason said. You talked about academic
achievement for Indian kids. On the second page of my testimony
is one source of achievement data from our school, which
identifies anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of our students are
proficient or advanced according to the bureau's definition in
different areas.
One of the problems that we see with the No Child Left
Behind is when you have to desegregate data and look at the
disaggregated data that is a good thing. But when you determine
a whole school's academic achievement or making adequate yearly
progress based on sometimes one or two children, and in our
case children with handicapped conditions, one or two children
could put the whole school in jeopardy just because of the way
the thing is structure.
So this clearly outlines the difference between looking at
the total population and then looking at the population without
the special education students. So I just wanted to make sure
that you get a chance to look at that data.
Another thing that kind of disturbed me when Mr. Cason was
talking this morning. Their solution for improving schools and
improving academics of Indian children appears to be adding
more SES positions and high-level management positions within
the bureau, which is going to solve the problem. I would almost
venture to guess that I would be willing to bet part of my
salary that that is not going to make a difference over time.
As a matter of fact, they presented a PowerPoint earlier in the
week which I would like to present as part of the record.
It looks like at least there are seven SES positions in
their plan for education, and probably 10 to 15 GS-15's or
higher. All of those positions probably get anywhere from let's
say $110,000 to $150,000 a year in salary, plus fringe and
everything else. So if they are going to spend $2 million or $3
million, I would suggest that they spend it at the school-level
in the classrooms instead at senior management-level positions.
I know that that is the case because I would also like to
present and put as part of the record part of their internal
documents for fiscal year 2007. Part of their budget request
discussion includes taking $3.4 million from ISEP and using
that money for that senior management stuff. So they are
directly taking money from children and trying to set up this
system. I do not think that is going to work and I do not think
it will make that much of a difference.
And then one other thing I would like to present, which is
at the end of my testimony, is a letter from Senator Dole to
Senator Cochran that deals with a food service program in
trying to fund a pilot program within the Child Nutrition
Program to allow for schools, for their free and reduced lunch
meal, to set up a program so they can use the WIC criteria
instead of the other criteria, which would allow more children
not to have to pay for lunches, especially since Senator
Johnson talked specifically about 90 percent unemployment rate
on the reservation in Pine Ridge. That would be something that
could really help them.
So I would like to present that and make it part of the
record. A couple of other things that I would like to do before
I get done is talk about three things. One is I think over the
last 3 to 5 years the bureau itself and the structure has
allowed the misuse or misappropriation of available resources.
I know for sure that there is special education money that
comes from the Department of Education that goes to the BIA.
Upward of 20 percent to 30 percent is kept at levels and never
gets to the schools. I think that needs to change because the
money that you should be spending is stuff that happens in the
classroom and no where else.
Even at my level at the Superintendency, it is necessary to
have leadership, but where you really make differences is to
allocate your resources in the classroom. I think earlier you
said that one of the GAO reports said that bureau-funded
schools are spending about $10,000 per student. If you look at
that, even Ms. Vasques said that 25 percent of the money in the
bureau comes from the Department of Education. If you add that
25 percent plus the other discretionary dollars that schools
have to go out and hustle for, I would contend that about 40
percent of the total funding at the school level is
discretionary funds that could theoretically be gone next year
if people decided not to fund certain things.
So then you get down to the base amount, which might be
somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000. Of that $4,000 or $6,000
amount, which is ISEP, transportation, administrative costs and
operations and maintenance funds for bureau-funded schools,
those four levels, if you look at the amount of revenue they
have received over the last 4 or 5 years, some of them have
actually decreased in revenue over the last 3 or 4 years, and
some of them they may have increased $3 million, but when you
spread $3 million over 50,000 children, that does not make a
lot of impact at the school level.
So I think you really have to take a look at the base
funding for the schools. Even though some of the discretionary
funding has increased, the base money has not made a lot of
impact. So I think that in looking at what needs to be done for
schools, what has to happen is things inside the classrooms. We
are required at the school level to have a comprehensive school
reform plan. The bureau has encouraged us to look at data to
make decisions on what is best for children in the classroom.
I heard this morning that they are just now starting to do
a needs assessment to figure out what is going on. If they are
making us do this, and we have done it for, well, I have done
it myself for at least 15 or 20 years, but the schools that are
doing it well have done it for a lot of times, looking at data,
disaggregating data to find out what is going on. If they are
just now starting to look at it, there is some kind of
disconnect that is going on.
So I think if you look at the stuff that I have submitted
in written testimony, the stuff that I am providing today. I am
willing to talk to any of the staff on the Committee on some
real specific issues that I think are hampering schools in
making differences for children. I would be more than willing
to do that.
Thank you for your time.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Bordeaux appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Doctor.
Mr. Lowery, what is the justification for increasing the
cap on administrative costs from 10 percent to over 20 percent?
Mr. Lowery. We are looking for that in the first 2 years of
the foundation, Mr. Chairman. As I refer to in the research we
have done, the ability to establish effective infrastructure
with proper staffing is essential to long-term efficiency. We
are simply looking at this for the first 2 years.
If you look at the numbers, no numbers that I saw in my
research, for instance even the United Way, which is
essentially overhead of overhead with the Combined Federal
Program for themselves, is at 12.7 percent. The Better Business
Bureau looks at 30 percent. The Federal guidelines for the
Combined Federal Campaign is 25 percent. So we still remain
within those figures and we hope that we will reduce it even
further, but that gives us some flexibility given the
difficulty we have had the first several years of our
existence.
The Chairman. Tell me again what is the status on getting
funds released from the Office of Special Trustee.
Mr. Lowery. We had a meeting yesterday with Mr. Cason. It
is the first time we have actually been able to talk in person
on this subject. We are supposed to have a follow-up meeting on
July 6. It is our understanding that he is going to do all he
can to release these $200,000 in unrestricted funds.
Unfortunately, the other $1.4 million are very specifically
restricted.
The Chairman. Dr. Beaulieu, what is the percentage of
teachers in BIA and tribal schools that are not highly
qualified, roughly?
Mr. Beaulieu. I do not know the exact number, Senator.
The Chairman. Do you have a rough estimate?
Mr. Beaulieu. No I do not. I am sorry.
The Chairman. One-half? Are one-half the teachers, to your
knowledge, designed, quote, ``highly qualified''?
Mr. Beaulieu. I believe that there is a significant issue
of being highly qualified in the BIA system in terms of being
subject-matter qualified for the courses they teach, which is
also a condition in rural schools as well, just generally.
The Chairman. Maybe you can provide that for the record for
us.
Mr Beaulieu. Yes.
The Chairman. I think that is one of the challenges of
complying with NCLB is this issue of teachers that are, quote,
``highly qualified.''
Mr. Beaulieu. Senator, I might add we also are concerned
about the highly qualified in terms of expanding the definition
a bit to include competence in the ability to teach culturally
unique children, so that we would emphasize greater
professional development of the staff in schools with Indian
children.
The Chairman. Thank you. Would you send copies of the field
hearing report you mentioned in your testimony to the
committee?
Mr. Beaulieu. Yes; we will.
The Chairman. Thank you. We would be interested.
Dr. McDonald, what is the status of your American Indian
Measures of Success initiative and when are the reports due
out?
Mr. McDonald. It is going to come out right away. All of
our data was to be turned into the AHEIC at the end of May, so
I think we are going to get a report here in this next month.
The Chairman. Yes; I hope you will send us a copy of that.
Mr. McDonald. We surely will.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Dr. Bordeaux, you testified 1 year ago on NCLB. What
improvements have you seen over the past year in implementing
No Child Left Behind?
Mr. Bordeaux. In the big picture, I think there are two
things. One is it is forcing public schools to look at their
disaggregated population, which in this discussion means
looking at the Indian students and actually recognizing that
they are in the classroom and they really are part of the
student population, so they are looking at them and finding out
what is going on with them academically, and recognizing that
there is a need for them to work and try to improve the
achievement of academics for Native American children in public
schools.
In BIA-funded schools, I think the success stories are
still being written, but delays have happened because of the
negotiated rulemaking process, where the rules are just now
going into effect about 1 week ago, which should probably have
been done a couple of years ago, but because of how long it
took for them to go through the process. It is hard to tell
what is going to happen.
I do know that at our level at the school that I work at,
we have made a lot of successes academically. I am not
convinced it is because of NCLB. I am convinced it is because
the Sisseton-Wahpeton people made the decision that they wanted
to be better educated, so that is what they are doing.
The Chairman. What is your school doing to meet the highly
qualified teacher requirements?
Mr. Bordeaux. I think the are biggest impact is, I made a
commitment a long time ago in looking at a research report that
I looked at when I was getting my doctorate that said that in
business and industry they were spending nearly 5 percent of
their money in professional development and training and
retraining their staffs to make sure that they are always up to
date on what is going on in their industry. In education at
that time, they were spending less than 2 percent on
professional development.
So I have made a commitment always to spend at least 5
percent on professional development. As a matter of fact, this
last year, I think there are three of us right now who are
doctorates at an elementary and secondary school. We have three
other people working on their doctorate degree. We have four of
them finishing their specialist. We just have 14 graduated with
master's degrees from Southwest State in Minnesota. So we have
about 45 certified positions in our school and of that amount
over 30 of them have at least a master's degree in curriculum
and instruction or in educational administration. So I think
that is one of the keys.
The other key is making sure that in the classroom, that
what is going on in the classroom is highly active and
culturally relevant. For Indian children, those things are
really important.
The Chairman. What would motivate a young graduate of a
university with a teaching degree to want to come to teach at
Red Lake or Lakota Sioux Reservation or Chinlee, Arizona?
Mr. Bordeaux. The hardest thing I think to motivate
somebody to come to a reservation to work is the economic
condition on a lot of reservations is real tough. It is hard to
get housing. It is real hard to find a quality of life on a lot
of reservations that they are used to if they have never lived
in poverty. So it makes it a lot more difficult.
What you have to do as a teacher, and most good teachers
have something in their heart that makes them a good teacher,
and it does matter where they go to.
The Chairman. But you have a relatively high turnover.
Mr. Bordeaux. In a lot of schools. In our case, I think
part of it is location because where the Federal Government put
that reservation just happened to go where there is an
Interstate that goes through it now. So it is location. And
where they put other reservations at Pine Ridge and some other
places where they put Indian people, it is completely isolated.
You do not have access to much of anything.
There are places that do not have good Internet access, not
very good telephone service; where there is still a lot of
multiple connections and stuff like that that is going on, too.
The Chairman. What is your comment about that, Dr.
Beaulieu?
Mr. Beaulieu. About teachers, Senator?
The Chairman. What do we need to do to motivate a young
American who graduates with a teaching degree to go to Tuba
City, AZ or Red Lake, the more remote areas of America that are
mired in poverty?
Mr. Beaulieu. Senator, we have had some experience with
teacher training. We have had two Native teacher training
programs at Arizona State University.
The Chairman. Is the answer to recruit more Native
Americans to be teachers?
Mr. Beaulieu. Yes; indeed, I would say. In fact, focusing
on people who are already in those schools who have a
commitment to teaching the children and enabling through
programs such as we do have with the Indian Professional
Development Program which has been very successful with the
students that we have educated, which requires that you teach
in the school with a high Indian population once you graduate
from the program.
The Chairman. But neither these programs nor the number of
Native Americans that are graduating with teaching degrees
would anywhere near fill the requirements for teaching
positions on Native American and BIA schools, right?
Mr. Beaulieu. They would not, but they would also----
The Chairman. So then it seems to me then you have to have
some other program which would at least in the interim motivate
non-Native Americans who are teaching-qualified to go there,
just like we increase pay and bonuses for men and women to
serve in the military.
Mr. Beaulieu. That is correct.
The Chairman. So have you all ever come up with any plans
or ideas that we could motivate young teachers to go to these
places and fill these positions?
You are eager to answer, Dr. Bordeaux. Go ahead, and then
Dr. Beaulieu, if you would like.
Mr. Bordeaux. I think one of the things that has been
successful in some places, too, is to allow schools over time
to grow their own, so that they hire para-educators that want
to become teachers and let them work as para-educators for 2 or
3 years. When they get close to having teaching degrees, let
them teach, even though they are not fully certified and do not
meet the highly qualified requirement yet, but let them teach
and work in that school at the same time so that they can get
their degree plus gain the experience. That is how you grow
Indian teachers.
A lot of the Indian teachers that we have within our school
have gone that way. I think that is something that I think can
work and it has worked in certain areas.
I think another thing is we talked about loan forgiveness
for some of those that really want to come to poverty areas.
The Chairman. Go ahead, Dr. Beaulieu.
Mr. Beaulieu. I was going to suggest a similar idea in
terms of in Tuba City we are currently working on the
development of a teacher program there through a program funded
through the Arizona Department of Education. There are
identified 23 individuals who wish to become teachers there
within the staff who are not currently teachers. We are
focusing on the development of a program there over time to
develop that teaching corps.
I think it is not only an issue of supply, but also an
issue of turnover rates. The turnover rates in some of these
places are very high, which creates another issue which has to
do with long-term improvement. If you are constantly changing
teachers year after year after year, you are not improving the
school through professional development efforts as well.
The Chairman. Mr. Lowery, do you have any comments about
that?
Mr. Lowery. Yes I do, sir; the Santa Fe Indian School
Leadership Institute, which was cofounded by Regis Pecos, one
of the board members for the National Fund, created a community
dialog which forces each community to develop a community-based
set of principles and ideals, asking the question involving the
entire community: What legacy do we want to leave our children
100 years from now?
The FACE Program, which is the BIA's best example of
effective programming, has within it the seed of a principle,
which is they go into the homes of students and they actually
tutor the parents in how to tutor their children, how to
support their children. They get a two-fold benefit. One is the
parents are more highly motivated, more self-confident in
pursuing and completing their own education. Their students are
as well.
Until we develop a holistic strategy that involves the
entire community in owning its own responsibility and support
for education, we cannot have the kind of comprehensive, long-
term support for young people growing up on a reservation that
want to stay on the reservation, but come back highly qualified
to an environment where there is little reinforcement for their
ideals and for their commitment.
The Chairman. Do you want to weigh in on this Dr. McDonald
or pass?
Mr. McDonald. I would certainly take the opportunity to
weigh-in.
It is a long term. There is not a short-term situation for
it. Certainly, as an emissary of the tribal colleges, I would
have to say that a recent report of the College Board
statistically has proven that if they graduate from college,
they take more active interest in the community. They are more
active in the schools. They are more active community
volunteers. Their children are more liable to go to school, so
it makes a more wholesome community for a long-range effect.
For short range, certainly loan forgiveness is one;
certainly some priority pay. If you look at the future of one
going to an Indian school with very poor retirement, certainly
way out there in the middle of nowhere, with very poor medical
help, poor housing, it is not very attractive. One has to
address all of those in order to get really good quality
teachers.
The Chairman. Well, Dr. Bordeaux? The State Department,
when you are in the Foreign Service and they send you to a
remote outpost, Uzbekistan, they give you additional pay,
additional incentives, more enhanced opportunity for promotion.
But there are rewards and incentives associated with it. In the
military when we send someone to a remote area separated from
their family, et cetera, we give them financial rewards for
doing so.
It is a pretty bizarre statement, but why don't we think
about providing financial and other incentives and rewards for
young Americans who graduate with teaching certificates to go
to Chinlee or Window Rock or Red Lake or these other places
where the conditions exist that all of you have so adequately
described.
Mr. McDonald. Yes; even in the urban areas or the big city
of Ronan, MT, it is very difficult for teachers there because
of the politics between Indian and white and poor Indians and
tragic youth deaths. It is just tragic.
The Chairman. I would start out with BIA schools
specifically. What do you say, Dr. Bordeaux?
Mr. Bordeaux. I think what you are talking about is a
plausible solution for part of the population that really wants
to try and work on Indian reservations, give them something in
addition to what they would normally get, but it cannot be the
only answer. I think there also has to be a process to try to
grow Indian teachers from within, too.
The Chairman. Could I remind you that in the military and
the State Department, it is not the only reason. We appeal to
people's patriotism and willingness to serve, but we also
reward them for taking on additional burdensome tasks. It seems
to me that to ask a young teacher to go to a geographic area
that has all of the conditions which you all have described and
I am familiar with as well, that maybe we should develop some
kind of program that would reward them for that kind of
service. First of all, it is patriotism, but second of all it
would be some kind of system where we might make it more
rewarding in a fiscal way than it is today.
In all due respect, if I was a young teacher and I had a
choice of Window Rock or Maricopa-Pima in Phoenix, I think I
would choose Maricopa-Pima. Right?
Mr. Bordeaux. I am sure you would because I have been at
teacher fairs where people from Dallas public schools would be
up in Sioux Falls, SD offering $3,000 and $5,000 bonuses for
those teachers coming out of South Dakota universities. They
would much prefer to go down and do that instead of staying in
South Dakota in the rural areas.
The Chairman. Well, maybe we ought to look at that because
it is obvious that it is a significant problem, one, in
attracting people; and two, as you pointed our Dr. McDonald and
all of us know, the turnover is horrendous. I think we ought to
think outside the box on this issue.
I thank the witnesses for being here. Thank you for your
service. Thank you for your commitment to Native American
education and we appreciate very much your valuable testimony.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:20 a.m., the committee was adjourned, to
reconvene at the call of the Chair.]
=======================================================================
A P P E N D I X
----------
Additional Material Submitted for the Record
=======================================================================
Prepared Statement of Leland Leonard, Director, Division of Dine'
Education, Navajo Nation
Within the Navajo Nation there is concern among teachers,
communities, and administrators on the implementation of the No Child
Left Behind Act [NCLBA]. While there certainly is room to improve the
education of Navajo students, meaningful discussions need to be held on
the impact the NCLBA will have on the education of Navajo students.
Without meaningful discussions the Navajo Nation will struggle with the
impact of perceived negative test scores and the labeling of programs
as failing that are actually quite successful.
Responsible educators on Navajo have struggled for years to
increase student achievement. Simply mandating student achievement
without having a meaningful dialog on the definition of achievement and
how to reach it will inappropriately label schools as failing.
With that introduction, we wish to comment on some specific areas
of NCLBA, starting with initial testing results and provide a
recommendation.
Navajo schools testing results--As of 2003-04 School Year.
Under the NCLBA nearly 11 percent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
[BIA] schools are meeting Adequate Yearly Progress [AYP], down from 44
percent in SY 2002-03. These numbers confirm our fears that move and
more schools and students will fail as the AYP bar rises. Testing
results in the public schools are not much more encouraging. Schools
either make AYP or they do not under the NCLBA because the act does not
provide a middle ground.
Narrow scope of testing--NCLBA tests only in three subject areas:
Reading, Math, and Science. While these subjects are important,
students maybe excelling in other areas, such as music, art, history,
vocational subject, or Navajo language and culture and receive no
credit under NCLBA. Schools will be tempted to focus on the areas where
the statute requires testing and de-emphasize or eliminate programs
that many students are excelling in.
The focus on testing--Focusing on testing results has had
predictable results. In many cases teachers are increasing homework,
expanding drill time, teaching to the test; i.e., doing more of all the
things that weren't working in the first place. The NCLBA does not
encourage innovation and imagination.
Scientifically based curriculum--There is not a lot of data
concerning ``what works'' with Navajo children. The existing data
suggests that the most successful curricula are those that are oriented
in the Navajo culture. Many schools will disregard this information or
not have access to it, and simply pick programs that have found their
way onto an approved list at the state or national level.
Schools that have a large Native American population must have the
opportunity to develop and implement culturally based curriculum and
there needs to be specific research funded to evaluate its
effectiveness, preferably available to the tribes themselves. On
Navajo, we have the beginnings of such research under the Navajo
Nation's Rural Systemic Initiative program under the National Science
Foundation, but the funding for that program ended.
The large gap in proflciency--The goal of full proficiency within a
12-year period is far more realistic in schools where students are
already testing at a high level of proficiency than in those where
proficiency levels are very low. For example a school where 75 percent
of the student body is already rated as proficient, may have a
relatively easy time of achieving the small increments necessary to
make AYP. A school that begins with 10 percent of its students rated as
proficient will have to consistently make dramatic gains. Even
exceptional progress may still not be enough to avoid being labeled as
failing. The great danger is that even students who are trying hard and
doing reasonable well will be labeled as failing. The law could require
``gains `` in student achievement with recognition that every student
is an individual, with his own talents and interests. Testing should be
used to identify a student's aptitude and provide guidance for the
future direction of his/her education. Schools need to provide more
options as the needs of our society expand. Every student should not
have to run the same race or be expected to arrive at the same finish
line.
We have a Recommendation:
Enhancing the opportunities for tribes to develop tribal
educational systems where tribes can actually control the educational
programs.
The Navajo Nation is in the process of assuming authority and
responsibility over the educational programs on Navajo. We are
negotiating a Public Law 93-638 contract with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs to assume responsibilities relating to the provisions of
technical assistance and training of school personnel, school boards
and parents. In addition, we are proposing new tribal legislation that
would establish a Navajo Nation Board of Education with authority to
develop standards and accredit schools, collect and analyze date, and
license administrators and teachers. This option was one of the
opportunities that was enhanced with the passage of NCLBA and we plan
to make full use of it to make a positive difference in the education
programs on Navajo. While this legislation will relate primarily to the
BIA funded school system, the Board will also have authority to
negotiate Memoranda of Agreement with the three States that operate
schools on the Navajo Nation.
The Bureau makes no provisions for implementing the statutory
option for tribes to develop their own alternative definitions of AYP.
This again requires resources. States received funding for this AYP
planning, but nothing seems to be available for the tribes that may
wish to pursue their options to actually develop appropriate measures
for student progress. The Bureau should provide for such resources in
its MOU with the U.S. Department of Education.
To do this successfully requires resources. Congress has authorized
such funding but has not appropriated any funding for the past several
years. See 25 USC 2020. The Navajo Nation renews its funding request
for tribal education departments in the BIA budget at the authorized
level of $2,000,000.
While the BIA has proposed ``privatization'' realignments on top of
illegal reorganizations, budget cuts to offices charged with providing
technical assistance, and new programs with no statutory authorization;
it ignores and neglects those things it is truly charged with; i.e.
encouraging and enhancing tribal self-determination. Additionally,
planning grants under section 103 of Public Law 93-638 have gone
unfunded for many years.
No funding is requested for the critical planning for tribal
control under the authorizations cited above, nor is there any request
for adequate funding for administrative cost grants and indirect costs.
The BIA also ignores opportunities for encouraging tribal control of
education and centralizes the resources it receives from the Department
of Education rather than distributing them to the offices where
technical assistance could be provided, and could more easily be
contracted by tribes.
Conclusion: The No Child Left Behind Act needs to be amended. Its
accountability provisions need to recognize gains in achievement and
must not be so narrowly drawn. Testing is a tool that should be used to
identify the aptitudes and performance of students but success on a
test must not become the goal of education. Opportunities should be
expanded for students who have an interest and aptitude in something
other than a traditional 4-year college.
In Indian country, the Federal Government should make use of
statutory authorization that already exist to encourage and enhance
tribal control of education as a major tool for implementation of
quality education programs.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.001
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.002
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.003
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.004
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.005
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.006
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.007
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.008
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.009
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.010
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.011
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.012
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.013
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.014
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.015
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.016
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.017
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.018
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.019
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.020
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.021
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.022
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.023
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.024
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.025
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.026
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.027
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.028
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.029
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.030
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.031
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.032
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.033
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.034
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.035
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.036
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.037
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.038
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.039
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.040
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.041
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.042
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.043
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.044
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.045
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.046
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.047
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.048
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.049
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.050
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.051
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.052
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.053
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.054
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.055
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.056
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.057
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.058
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.059
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.060
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.061
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.062
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.063
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.064
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.065
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.066
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.067
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.068
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.069
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.070
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.071
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.072
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.073
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.074
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.075
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.076
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T1951.077
Prepared Statement of Hon. Daniel K. Inouye, U.S. Senator from Hawaii
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I commend the committee for holding this hearing today.
Education is the cornerstone that helps to build our Nation to what
it is today and to prepare for our future. This is also true for native
nations.
In Hawaii, we have several education programs available for Native
Hawaiians, separately funded from Indian programs, of course.
Native Hawaiians experience similar concerns as other native
students, with a majority of the schools in Hawaii that do not meet
Federal elementary and secondary education standards having a
predominantly Native Hawaiian population.
Although all native children are improving their test scores, they
still fall behind other children and the schools are still not meeting
Federal standards.
But those Federal standards focus on reading, math, and science.
I mention this because there may be other factors that are causing
the lower achievement scores and creating negative consequences.
The Federal Government must consider and address the impact that
inadequate funding, poor school facilities, geographic isolation,
culture, and other factors have on the ability of schools to educate
native students and on the ability of native students to learn.
We must realize that there are additional means to improve the
education of native peoples of all ages, both in and out of the
classroom.
Perhaps most importantly, we must recognize that native peoples
must be involved in the education of their students to ensure that
their unique needs are addressed.
This is critical in ensuring that native peoples can define and
build their communities to reflect their respective cultures and needs.
Providing an effective, relevant and quality education is important
to every nation in order to prepare future leaders with the skills
necessary to address social, health, and economic conditions.
We must assist native nations in doing the same.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this much needed hearing.