U.S. Senate Committee Unanimously Passes Heitkamp, Lankford, Daines Bipartisan Bill to Build Access to Cultural Educational Opportunities for Native Students

Statement

U.S. Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), James Lankford (R-OK), and Steve Daines (R-MT) today announced that the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs unanimously passed their bill to make sure Native American students are not blocked from accessing federal learning resources for which they are eligible. According to recent Census Bureau estimates, about 500,000 potentially eligible Native students are excluded from accessing federal resources to help meet their unique cultural and academic needs.

Currently the federal government relies on two-decade old Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) data to determine Native students' eligibility for federal funding needs and distribution for the Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) program -- a federal cultural educational support program that works to boost academic achievement among underserved students in Native populations. Heitkamp, Lankford, and Daines' bipartisan Johnson O'Malley Supplemental Indian Education Program Modernization Act would work to change that by requiring the federal government to accurately count all Native students who could be served under the program. By providing more accurate eligibility data, the senators aim to help close significant achievement gaps among Native students and make sure they are able to access programs that help them improve academically.

"North Dakota's Native children are full of potential, and I see their desire to thrive when I visit tribal reservations across our state -- but I also see the heartbreaking disparities in opportunity that exist," said Heitkamp. "Studies have shown that culturally relevant learning opportunities in schools help Native students do better in the classroom, leading to more success down the road. But right now, we know there are as many as 500,000 Native children who are eligible for culturally relevant education resources to help them succeed academically who are locked out of accessing them. With our bipartisan bill, we're working to change that so more Native students can get the support they need to thrive, and it's encouraging the bill is moving forward."

"The Johnson O'Malley Act is a critical program that provides cultural and academic assistance to American Indian students and opens the door to a number of valuable resources," said Lankford. "I applaud the Committee's progress to update decades-old data which will allow American Indian students to have access to quality education. I look forward to a vote on the Senate floor in the days ahead."

"Education is key to healthy and thriving communities," said Daines. "We need to know how to help and who we need to help in order to provide the education that Native American students need."

In July, Heitkamp questioned Carla Mann, the president of the National Johnson-O'Malley Association at a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing about the ways in which Native American students who are eligible for federal learning resources that can help address their unique academic and cultural needs are prevented from accessing those critical programs. Mann discussed the challenge of ensuring access to such programs when the federal government still relies on severely outdated BIA data to determine federal funding needs and distribution for the JOM program.

"Across Indian Country, so many brilliant children are not able to shine as brightly because they lack the educational resources they need to excel," said National Johnson-O'Malley Association President Carla Mann. "The research is clear -- given the right academic and culturally relevant tools, Native children can improve academically. But for too long, the federal system has failed hundreds of thousands of children who ought to be accessing these important tools. By aiming to more accurately count the number of Native students eligible, which Senator Heitkamp's bipartisan bill would do, we can make sure they receive the Johnson O'Malley programs which were designed for their benefit and help them flourish. We know that the sky is the limit for Native children's potential -- and by unanimously passing Senator Heitkamp's bill, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is bringing them one step closer."

Click here to learn more about Heitkamp, Lankford, and Daines' bill.

During a time when Native students graduate from high school at a rate far lower than any other racial or ethnic demographic in the country, Heitkamp, Lankford and Daines are working to make sure that the cultural programs in public schools that have linked to boosting Native students' morale, as well as academic performance and attendance, are readily available in classrooms. Despite the stark need for such programs, the last official count in 1995 by BIA identified 271,884 Native students eligible for such resources. Since that time, the BIA has attempted to officially verify Native students eligible for the program without success, while the National Congress of American Indians has recently indicated a large gap in access to these programs -- with a marked increase of more than 500,000 Native young people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which means there were close to 800,000 students nationwide in 2010 that could be eligible for JOM cultural resources.

Heitkamp, Lankford, and Daines' bipartisan bill would call on the U.S. Department of the Interior to update its severely outdated count of Native students in a timely manner by using existing public information from various data sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), to show underserved students who are potentially eligible under the program. This data is crucial for making sure Native students in public schools can access the cultural and educational investments critical to their success.

In a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing last May, Heitkamp reinforced the need to pass her bipartisan bill to make sure programs designed to enrich the academic performance among Native students are reaching students as intended. Heitkamp has long worked to make sure Native young people living in Indian Country have access to the quality educational opportunities and resources they need to thrive by:

Identifying challenges faced by Native young people: Among Heitkamp's top priorities include comprehensively addressing the challenges Native children face -- including inadequate access to educational opportunities. Her first bill introduced as a U.S. Senator, a bipartisan bill to create a Commission on Native Children, was signed into law last fall. Heitkamp has been pushing the President Trump and leaders of Congress to appoint more members to the Commission so it can begin its important work of studying the complex challenges facing Native children and make recommendations on how to make sure Native children get the protections, as well as economic and educational tools, they need to thrive.

Protecting and strengthening Native languages and cultures: Building on her work to reauthorize legislation to help preserve often endangered Native languages, Heitkamp encouraged Congressional leaders in November 2015 to protect cultural language enrichment and immersion programs in the U.S. Senate's K-12 education reform bill that boosts pride and morale in Native communities and improves students' academic performance and attendance.

Improving access to educational resources and opportunities for Native youth: Heitkamp has long promoted safe after-school programs like 21st Century Community Learning Centers for vulnerable and at-risk youth in Indian Country, and pushed to include provisions reinstating resources dedicated to such programs in the U.S. Senate's K-12 education reform bill in April 2015. Heitkamp also convened North Dakota educators to discuss challenges Native students in rural areas face in accessing academic opportunities, and met with the head of U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) in 2014 on improving connectivity to make sure Native students in rural areas can access technology for educational and economic opportunities.

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