Intertribal Life Newspaper -

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In March, President Donald Trump proposed a $936.3 million Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 budget for the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).

The BIE’s primary mission is to provide quality education opportunities from early childhood through life in accordance with a tribe’s need for cultural and economic well-being, in keeping with the wide diversity of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes as distinct cultural and governmental entities.

For the first time in its history, the BIE’s budget request is being presented in a separate budget justification. All BIE budget activities are shifted out of Indian Affairs’ Operation of Indian Programs account into a new Operation of Indian Education Programs account. In addition, the Education Construction budget activity is shifted to a new Education Construction account.

“The President’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget for the Bureau of Indian Education supports his goals for tribal self-determination by improving education services to Indian Country,” said Acting Interior Secretary David L. Bernhardt. “This budget recognizes the BIE being as important to tribes in the education of their children as the BIA is to supporting them in the management of their trust lands and resources.”

“I appreciate the President’s recognition through his FY 2020 proposal of the need to elevate the BIE budget to bureau-level status within the overall Indian Affairs budget, given its broad range of responsibilities for educating our students,” said Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs Tara “Katuk” Sweeney. “Our children are sacred and we’re fighting for their futures. That is why having the BIE budget as a separate account will allow for greater transparency and accountability for our education responsibilities.”

The 2020 budget acknowledges the distinct and separate responsibilities and missions of Indian Affairs’ two bureaus—BIE and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)—by elevating the BIE budget request to the bureau level and presenting it separately from the BIA’s. This proposal will advance BIE reform, provide autonomy and accountability, streamline services, maximize efficiency and build capacity.

The request also supports the Administration’s commitment to helping promote tribal nation-building and self-determination, empower tribal communities, foster tribal self-sufficiency, create educational and economic opportunities, ensure safe Indian communities and preserve and foster cultural heritage. The goals and vision reflected in the FY 2020 budget are informed by tribal leaders and the Tribal-Interior Budget Council (TIBC) who helped the department identify the priorities in this request.

The BIE manages the Federal school system comprised of 169 elementary and secondary schools and 14 dormitories, located on 64 reservations in 23 states, providing educational services to 46,692 individual students. It also operates two post-secondary schools and administers grants for 29 tribally controlled colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges.

BIE funding supports classroom instruction, student transportation, native language instruction, cultural enrichment, gifted and talented programs, and school improvement and maintenance. In some schools, funding also supports residential costs. And, because the BIE functionally serves as a State Education Agency (SEA), it administers and oversees U.S. Department of Education programs in BIE-funded schools, and receives additional Education Department funds to educate and provide services to students attending these schools.

The FY 2020 budget request prioritizes direct school operations, school improvement, early childhood programs, and completing the Bureau’s reform efforts to improve service and technical assistance for BIE-funded schools. Staffing is estimated at 2,448 full-time equivalents in 2020.