WASHINGTON – Feb. 5, 2007 – Combating a methamphetamine crisis in Indian Country and
promoting higher academic achievement in Indian schools are key initiatives in
President Bush’s FY 2008 budget for the Department of the Interior, Secretary
Kempthorne said today.
“The President has proposed more than
$30 million in targeted funding to help American Indian communities battle the
rise of methamphetamine crime on reservations and improve educational
opportunities for today’s Indian youth,” Kempthorne said. “These efforts are
critically important to ensure that future generations of American Indians have
safe and secure communities and that Indian students can fulfill their potential
through education.”
“Tribal leaders describe a
methamphetamine crisis that has the potential to destroy an entire generation
if action isn’t taken,” Kempthorne said. “They refer to it as the second
smallpox epidemic and rank it as the number one public safety problem on their
reservations.” Organized crime and foreign drug cartels have taken
advantage of the limited law-enforcement presence on tribal lands to produce
and distribute the drug, resulting in a violent crime rate in some communities
that is 10 times to 20 times the national average.
“At one reservation particularly hard
hit, an estimated 25 percent of babies are born addicted to methamphetamine,”
Kempthorne said. “We cannot ignore this tragedy. We must help
Indian Country remove this scourge from its midst. We will stop these
peddlers of poison.”
The president has proposed a $16
million increase to fund the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Safe Indian Communities
Initiative, which will strengthen law enforcement capabilities on tribal
lands by providing $5 million to hire and train additional law enforcement
officers; $5 million to increase staff at Indian detention facilities and for
training detention officers; and $6 million to provide specialized drug
enforcement training for officers and public awareness campaigns about the
dangers of methamphetamine use for tribal communities.
To raise the level of student
performance in Bureau of Indian Education schools, the President’s budget calls
for an additional $15 million investment to improve Indian student academic
achievement, a key goal of the No Child Left Behind Act. The BIE system
has 184 schools that educate about 50,000 students.
“As one of only two federal school
systems, our Bureau of Indian Education schools should be models of achieving
the goals of the No Child Left Behind Act,” Kempthorne said. “Yet, just 30
percent of our schools are meeting these goals. We must change course so Indian
children receive the education they deserve.”
The initiative will provide enhancements
and tools to help these schools raise the level of student performance and
increase the number of schools achieving Adequate Yearly Progress under the No
Child Left Behind Act. The initiative will provide targeted, intensive
educational assistance to schools that have yet to achieve their Adequate
Yearly Progress goals and provides additional funding for student
transportation, education program management and information technology.
Included in the request is $5.3
million to fund a new program element, Education Program Enhancements, to use
resources for specific initiatives, projects, and new activities associated
with targeted improvements to educational instruction and learning. An
increase of $4.25 million for student transportation will offset rising fuel
costs and ensure that BIE school transportation continues to meet national and
state standards.
An increase of $3.6 million for
Education Program Management will establish positions for specialists dedicated
to the administration and management of data, contracts and school finances.
And an increase of $1.85 million will fund the Native American Student
Information System, an information management tool that will support the BIE’s
efforts in improving student and school performance.
More detailed information is in the
FY 2008 Interior Budget in Brief, which
is available online at: http://www.doi.gov/budget/2008/08Hilites/toc.html.
http://www.doi.net/news/07_News_Releases/070205a_FACTSHEET.html
Improving Indian Education Fact Sheet:
http://www.doi.gov/news/07_News_Releases/070205a2_FACTSHEET.html