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Tribes seek added education funding
SUMMIT: Activists meeting in Sacramento say Indian children are being
shortchanged at school.
01/17/2002
By ROBERT T. GARRETT THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
SACRAMENTO - More than 50,000 American Indian children attend public
schools in California.
But the state and federal governments together spend less than $100 a year
per child to address Indian students' comparatively low levels of literacy
and poor test scores, tribal education activists said Wednesday in
Sacramento.
"From every source, we're underfunded," said Cindy La Marr, a member of the
Pit River Indian tribe in Shasta County.
La Marr, who runs tutoring and college-preparation programs for Indian
youth in the Sacramento region, helped organize this week's two-day summit
on Indian education. It was bankrolled by three California tribes that run
casinos, including the Twentynine Palms Band of Mission Indians in
Coachella.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs spends several million dollars annually
on its two Indian schools in California.
Both are in Riverside County -- Sherman Indian High School, a 600-student
boarding school in Riverside directly run by the bureau; and the Noli
Indian School in San Jacinto, a day school with 123 students that is funded
partially by the bureau but run by the Soboba tribe.
But only about 172 students at the two schools are from California,
according to the bureau.
At Sherman in Riverside, the federal government spends an average of $4,000
per boarding student, said Principal Kathleen Silvas.
"Who can raise a child on $4,000 a year?" she asked. "We should be eligible
for welfare."
Silvas said her school needs more money "so we can attract more quality
personnel and provide more technology."
Tribal representatives at the summit voiced alarm about what they called
inadequate state and federal support of tutoring and early-childhood
reading programs for the more than 99 percent of California Indian children
bound for public schools.
California tribes and school districts receive $636,000 a year in federal
funds for such programs under a law dating to the Great Depression. Only
7,470 students are covered.
"We don't get our fair share of dollars," said Andrew Andreoli, who manages
the state Education Department's Indian education office.
The state spends about $4 million a year on special programs for Indian
students, mostly for 29 Indian education centers, such as Ahmium Education
Inc. in San Jacinto.
Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga is scheduled to be
honored at the summit tonight for getting a bill passed last fall that
extended state authorization of the centers through 2006.
But Judy Fisch, education director for a Mendocino County tribe, said the
centers can't "provide many services or buy many supplies" on their average
state stipend of $120,000 a year.
Reach Robert T. Garrett at (916) 445-9973 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Andr� Cramblit, Operations Director-Northern California Indian Development
Council
NCIDC (http://www.ncidc.org) is a non-profit that meets the development
needs of American Indians and operates an art gallery featuring the art of
California tribes (http://www.americanindianonline.com)
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