Johnson Urges Improvements for Tribal Education

Washington, D.C. – The House Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing on the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) recently requested the committee hold a hearing to discuss BIE failures. Johnson introduced Cecilia Fire Thunder of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and attested to the dire state of Indian education in South Dakota and the need for improvements.

“I have been to these schools, I have talked to the tribal educators and every single time, the passionate message from them is the same,” said Johnson. “These schools are underfunded, they are mismanaged. There are problems from one end of the situation to the other, and you can tell they care about these kids and we’re failing these kids. So, I want to thank you [Mr. Chairman] for elevating this issue so we can figure out a way to do better.

“We cannot educate a second-grade student in a cold school, allow a middle schooler to use broken toilets in a building that is not insulated, or tolerate having high school math classes take place in a classroom that consistently leaks throughout winter,” said Fire Thunder. “To make these basic repairs, we must cannibalize another source of federal revenue that is intended for educating our students: the Indian Student Equalization Program, which itself is already underfunded. Annually, we use hundreds of thousands of dollars to fill this gap in federal funding for facility operations and maintenance.”

“The federal government built and owns these buildings that tribally controlled schools administered on behalf of the Federal government’s trust responsibility to tribes. In simple terms, Congress is not appropriating adequate funds to pay their building’s utility bills,” Fire Thunder continued. “We simply ask that Congress appropriate the necessary funds to pay the actual operating cost of BIE schools so that Indian students’ education funds are not unnecessarily reduced to pay for Congress’ appropriation shortfalls.”

Click here or the image above for Johnson’s remarks