A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                      Contact:  David Thomas    June 28, 1995                                      (202) 401-1579

Statement by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley Regarding House Appropriations Committee Vote to Eliminate Funding for Indian Education

The House Appropriations Committee vote yesterday to end all funding for the Indian Education Act is a cruel action that will harm American Indian and Alaska Native children unless it is reversed in the Congress.

The American people support investment in education. They recognize that the worst way to try to close the budget deficit is by widening the education deficit. The committee callously chose to deprive American Indian and Alaska Native students of needed services that will help them to stay in school and to reach challenging academic standards. The Indian Education Act serves more than 400,000 students each year in more than 1,000 school districts, as well as more than 5,000 Indian adults who participate in GED programs.

Last year, bipartisan majorities of Congress supported changes in this program to improve the capacity of schools to provide challenging curriculum to American Indian and Alaska Native students. This week, sadly, the House Appropriations Committee turned its back on educationally disadvantaged children who want to learn their way out of poverty. Let us hope that next month the House Appropriations Committee and the entire Congress will face up to its responsibility to give all of America's children the opportunity to succeed.