TO SUPPORT THE CONTINUATION OF JOHNSON O’MALLEY FUNDING

WHEREAS, the National Indian Education Association (NIEA) was established in 1969 for the purpose of advocating, planning, and promoting the unique and special educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians; and

WHEREAS, NIEA as the largest national Indian organization of American Indians, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian educators, administrators, parents, and students in the United States, provides a forum to discuss and act upon issues affecting the education of Indian and Native people; and

WHEREAS, through its unique relationship with Indian nations and tribes, the federal government has established programs and resources to meet the educational needs of American Indians, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiians, residing on and off their reserved or non-reserved homelands; and

WHEREAS, Native American populations have made significant advances in achieving academic success as demonstrated by a study conducted in 2005 by the National Center on Education Statistics; and

WHEREAS, Native American students have attained high school diplomas, as of March 2003, exceed the total of all other racial and ethnic groups by 3.2% except African Americans; and

WHEREAS, the negation of the advancement made by Native American populations through the invalidated references to the effect that the Johnson O’Malley grants under the Tribal Priority Allocations are duplicative of other Federal and state assistance programs and do not address a focused goal for academic achievement; and

WHEREAS, the lack of evidence to prove that the elimination of these grants will allow the BIA to focus its resources on the requirements of the Bureau-funded school system, while also reducing redundancy with other Federal programs; and

WHEREAS, the U.S. House of Representative admonished the Bush Administration in 2006 for justifying its proposed termination of Johnson O’Malley because of duplication of other federally supported programs such as Title VII of No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, hence substantiating that no such duplication exists; and

WHEREAS, the elimination of the Johnson O’Malley programs hold no guarantees that the Indian Self Determination Act of 1975 and will continue to be enforced according to the purpose of the regulations established in Part 273 of Public Law 93-638; and

WHEREAS, Indian Self Determination and Education Assistance Act were set forth to ensure the maximum participation of Indian populations in the development of programs for eligible Indian students; and

WHEREAS, the Snyder Act of 1921 is the primary authority that governs the implementation of Indian education programs; and

WHEREAS, the Johnson O’Malley Act of 1934 program is a supplementary aid program geared to offset the financial deficit of unmet extraordinary and exceptional cases of need and that the federal government will bear the added expense for services to the Indian population in collaboration with state public school districts; and

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that NIEA does hereby strongly oppose the FY 2007 BIA budget request that proposes the elimination of Johnson O’Malley (JOM) grants; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NIEA call upon Congress and the Administration to restore the national JOM budget to the FY 1994 allocation of $24 million dollars with the current JOM student count conducted under the Government Accountability Office to reinstate a funding formula that will ensure the equitable distribution of funding to address the specialized and unique educational needs that fall outside the school’s responsibilities.

CERTIFICATION

I do hereby certify that the following resolution was dully considered and passed by the NIEA Board of Directors on November 30, 2006 at which a quorum was present.