Deputy Under Secretary and Director of Indian Education Victoria Vasques presented the president's budget request for U.S. Department of Education programs serving American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs today.

The president's 2005 budget request continues to place a strong priority on assisting the nation's neediest students and includes historic funding increases to help states and school districts implement No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the president's sweeping education reform law. "Indian students will continue to benefit from major initiatives in the NCLB Act, and many programs at the Department help to ensure that our students have full access to these and other reforms to improve education," Vasques said in her testimony.

Overall, estimates show that Department programs provide nearly $1 billion in direct support specifically for American Indians and Alaska Natives. In addition, significant funds are provided to Indian students who receive services through federal programs such as Title I grants to local education agencies and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) state grants.

"The overall goal of the law is to ensure that every student, including American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians will be proficient in reading and mathematics," Vasques said.

The 2005 budget request includes a number of programs and initiatives that focus specifically on helping Indian students achieve.

Indian Education Programs

The 2005 request for the Department's Indian Education programs is $120.9 million. These programs, which are administered by the Office of Indian Education, include formula grants to school districts, competitive special programs and national activities.

The president is requesting $95.9 million for Indian Education formula grants to school districts. This program is one vehicle for addressing the unique educational and culturally related needs of Indian children. These grants supplement the regular school program, helping Indian children improve their academic skills, raise their self-confidence and participate in enrichment programs and activities that would otherwise be unavailable. The requested level would provide an estimated per-pupil payment of $203 for approximately 472,000 students in almost 1,200 school districts and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools.

The president's request for Special Programs for Indian Children is $19.8 million. Approximately $10 million will support demonstration grants that focus on school readiness for Indian preschool children and college preparatory programs.

In addition, the 2005 request will provide over $9 million to continue two training efforts under the Department's Professional Development Program—the American Indian Teacher Corps and the American Indian Administrator Corps initiatives. Both initiatives are designed to provide full state certification and in-service support to these new Indian teachers and administrators.

The president is requesting approximately $5.2 million for research, evaluation, data collection and technical assistance related to Indian education. Fiscal year 2005 funds would be used to continue support for the third phase of the National Indian Education Study that will collect data, through the National Assessment of Educational Progress, on American Indian and Alaska Native 4th- and 8th-grade student performance in mathematics and reading. Funds would also be used to continue research grants and data collections initiated in earlier years and to promote ongoing program improvement for Indian Education programs.

In addition to the president's proposed support for Indian Education, the Department supports the education of Indian students through several other programs, such as the following:

Title I Education for the Disadvantaged—Grants to Local Education Agencies

Title I provides supplemental education funding to local education agencies and schools, especially in high-poverty areas, to help more than 15 million educationally disadvantaged students, including an estimated 260,000 Indian children, learn to the same high standards as their peers. The Department is requesting $13.3 billion for Title I grants to LEAs in fiscal year 2005, a 52 percent increase since the passage of the NCLB Act. Under a statutory set-aside of 1 percent for the BIA and outlying areas, the BIA will receive approximately $97.9 million, an increase of more than $7.8 million over the previous fiscal year.

Reading First Grants

Reading First is a comprehensive effort to implement the findings of high-quality research on reading and reading instruction. Helping all children read well by the end of third grade is one of the administration's highest priorities for education. Providing consistent support for reading success from the earliest age has critically important benefits. Under this formula program, the BIA will receive one half of 1 percent of the state grants appropriation, approximately $5.6 million, an increase of more than half-a-million dollars over the previous fiscal year.

Special Education Grants to States

The Special Education Grants to States program provides formula grants to meet the excess costs of providing special education and related services to children with disabilities. Under the budget request of a little more than $11 billion, the Department would provide approximately $83.2 million to the BIA, more than a $1 million increase, to help serve approximately 7,600 Indian students.

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