Providing the tools and flexibility to bolster successful education reforms at the community level has been the goal of the Obama Administration. From Race to the Top to NCLB flexibility, the Department of Education knows that one-size-fits-all policies don’t meet the needs of every school, student, teacher and parents.
This same approach is taken in a new pilot program announced this week by Secretary Duncan. The new program, “State-Tribal Education Partnership,” or STEP, will award $1.9 million in competitive grants to tribal education agencies to perform some state-level functions for certain federal grant programs.
When announcing the pilot program, Secretary Duncan noted that, “tribal leaders, teachers, and parents, are best-suited to identify and address the needs of their children.”
The STEP pilot program application is available at www.grants.gov (search for CFDA number 84.415) and will be due on July 13, 2012.
Click here for more information, and watch Secretary Duncan announce the pilot program:
Click here for an alternate version of the video with an accessible player.
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For any of the alluded to education programatic kinds of things to be realistic, one would necessarily have to include those Natives, and others, who are incarcerated. Tribal education is a proverbial farce, if, Native Americans in prison are not included in the proposed grants. Natives are in prison primarily, because of the lack of education and health related kinds of shortcomings.