A bipartisan push to fix broken down Indian schools

The NCAA men’s basketball tournament isn’t the only place where a full-court press is taking place this week. In Washington, D.C., bipartisan members of Minnesota’s congressional delegation wielded their collective clout on a critical education issue: obtaining adequate funding for the nation’s broken-down federally funded Bureau of Indian Education school system.

About a third of 183 BIE schools nationally have facilities with safety and health hazards that undermine learning — an education crisis described in the Star Tribune’s 2014 editorial series “Separate and Unequal.” One of these schools is the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School on northern Minnesota’s Leech Lake Indian reservation.

With Congress in the midst of the 2016 appropriations process, this is an opportune time for Minnesota’s delegation, as well as other states’ representatives, to make it clear that years of declining or minimal funding for school construction must end. While it will take time to address the backlog of school construction on reservations — at least $1.3 billion is needed — a strong first step is needed.

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/editorials/297724691.html