At long last, Congress provides a boost for Indian schools

After years of neglect, Congress has taken meaningful new steps to make the thousands of kids trying to learn in broken-down Bureau of Indian Education schools a national priority.

While there’s still massive work ahead to modernize all BIE facilities, language within the just-passed 2016 federal spending bill suggests that a shameful era of poor management and zeroed-out replacement construction funding is coming to an end. BIE’s 183 schools serve about 49,000 children in remote reservations in Minnesota, the Dakotas and nationwide. More than 60 schools are in such poor repair that replacement is required — a crisis detailed in a 2014 Star Tribune editorial series.

http://www.ifallsjournal.com/news/opinion/at-long-last-congress-provides-a-boost-for-indian-schools/article_22e672d3-8298-595b-b6bc-d2940cce6794.html