American Indian Education Initiatives Face Great Challenges and Greater Budget Cuts
Feature Story by Adriana Schubmehl - 2/27/2008
Education reform that will prepare Native American youth for the workplace will be the cornerstone of the 2008 agenda for the nation's leading Native American organizations.
Spearheaded by the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), this agenda will "keep Native students moving toward educational equity…with their white counterparts," said NIEA President Dr. Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert, at the Annual State of Indian Education Address on February 11.
The creation of the NIEA was precipitated by a 1969 U.S. Senate report entitled "Indian Education: A National Tragedy – A National Challenge," which detailed the dire state of academics in Indian Country. Nearly four decades later, the NIEA's advancement of Indian Head Start Programs has promoted academic achievement, increased Native American graduation rates, and improved the overall quality of life for Native children.
However, the Bush administration's budget proposals have threatened the success of these programs by continually decreasing or eliminating their federal funding. "The government has not upheld its legal and moral obligations" to adequately support Native education initiatives, said Dr. Gilbert, leaving the NIEA unable to meet its primary goal of educational equity for American Indian students.
In the absence of funding for Indian-specific education programs, NIEA seeks to strengthen and amend provisions in No Child Left Behind, which would better serve the needs of Native communities, such as providing support for instruction in Native American languages, improving co-operation among tribes, states, and the federal government, and increasing support for teachers of Native students.
In order to fully prepare Native students for college and the workforce after high school, NIEA has joined other civil rights groups, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund, to form the Campaign for High School Equity. The Campaign recommends high school reform policies which would ensure educational equality for low-income students and students of color.
High school graduation is positively correlated with lower mortality rates, lower crime rates, and an overall higher quality of life. As of 2004, the national graduation rate for American Indian high school students was less than 50 percent, and Native people were twice as likely as whites to have less than a 9th grade education.
The lack of academic parity is just one part of the greater overall challenge facing Indian country, according to NIEA. Extreme poverty, limited access to healthcare, and high substance abuse rates impede the cultivation of a safe learning environment for Native American children. Along with other national Native American organizations, NIEA has developed the Native Children's Agenda to address these challenges. The Agenda calls for a comprehensive initiative to meet the basic needs of health, shelter, personal security and education in Native communities.
"Creating safe and supportive tribal communities for our children today honors our ancestors as well as future generations," said Dr. Gilbert. "The issues impacting our Native students are overwhelming…[but] let us not be afraid."
