In a bold effort to reorganize the tribal schools run by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Obama administration proposes a competition for funding based on Race to the Top.
“A revamped BIE, as envisioned in the proposal, would eventually give up direct operations of schools and push for a menu of education reforms that is strikingly similar to some championed in initiatives such as Race to the Top, including competitive-grant funding to entice tribal schools to adopt teacher-evaluation systems that are linked to student performance.”
Tribal leaders are opposed.
As well they should be. Race to the Top has been a flop since it was launched in 2009. Why should Indian tribal schools have to compete with test scores to get funded?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Please tell me that “Shocker” was sarcastic. While it’s certainly nauseating and disgusting, there’s nothing shocking about. SSDD.
Diem e, if it is not shocking, it should be. What a terrible thing to inflict on anyone. Why should BIA schools compete for funds that are theirs?
I agree it’s terrible, as is all of RttT. But it’s utterly predictable. Advancing RttT has been one of Obama’s top agenda items from day one. He’s never backed off even a little bit even in the face of overwhelming evidence that it’s harming the very people it purports to help. Obama is a neoliberal – advancing their harmful agenda against the will of the people is what neoliberals do.
As a former Arizona resident, I can say from firsthand experience that many Native Americans live in third world conditions, isolated with no running water, electricity, and miles away from passable roads and medical care. But rather than address these issues, the Obama admin would rather make the schools compete for $$. So classy.
I once drove through part of the huge Navaho Reservation. While some of it is beautiful much of it looks like the surface of the moon. On the other hand much of the White Mountain Apache and Mescalero Reservations ( the latter in New Mexico not Arizona) are actually very attractive.
There is an image from TV of Southern Athabascans living in the desert. Actually to a considerable extent some of them seemed to have stayed a lot in the mountains.
And of course those Indians chose of their own volition to live on “the surface of the moon”. I guess that demonstrates their IQ, eh?
Or maybe they didn’t have much choice as that’s where the U.S. government put them?
The earliest we know of the location of the Navaho they were just to the south andwest of Chaco Canyon. Kit Carson forced them into their present location. Coronado reported the Jicarilla in the Texas Pan Handle. It was sometime after 1700 that the Comanche and the Kiowa “persuaded’ most of the Southern Athabascans to move to the south and west. However having driven through both the Mescalero Reservation and the Llano Estacado I think the Comanche did them a favor. I wouild much rather live in the Mescalero Reservation than on the Llano Estacado.
Comparing Phoenix with the White Mountain Apache Reservation I would much prefer the White Mountain Apacehe Reservation.
It’s not as bad in Phoenix as you might think. My family lived in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area and our property was situated on the border of the largest reservation. While virtually all of that was once the most barren wasteland imaginable, as with other reservations near urban areas, the tribes have been benefiting from urban sprawl, by engaging in lease agreements with public and private entities for use of their land.
This began shortly after we moved there in the mid 80s, as the city had built a busily travelled public thoroughfare on reservation land and the tribes shut it down until the municipality agreed to pay to lease the land. More leases followed soon after, to the advantage of the Native Americans as well as their neighbors. A community college, was built on leased reservation land, as well as a shopping center, a highway, resort, casino, etc. Additional areas are being developed by the tribes for agriculture and other business purposes.
http://urbanland.uli.org/development-business/native-american-tribes-and-economic-development/
Competition resolves all problems, not support. How this works, I don’t know.
When in the world will Obama’s term be over? We can’t get rid of him soon enough. He has caused so much suffering. The man is not smart. We have had almost 16 years of poor leadership at the White House. The U.S. cannot take much more. The 4 dollars per gallon of gas could be solved by signing legislation, but yet he will not. He is a president who despises the U.S. and its people. All of his actions have proven that statement.
Clearly the President has never traveled through an Indian Reservation? Or if he has, he must have been blindfolded.
I have never witnessed such extreme poverty, and utter hopelessness as was evident there. The poorest in our great cities live like kings in comparison.
And what does he want to “give” them??
RTTT.
He cares nothing for them- as does most of America.
Here’s how the feds don’t describe RTTT, but could– “We’ve decided that we are NOT going to fund some schools. We will let you compete to see who gets their funding cut.” I can’t imagine why they don’t frame it that way.
Excellent point. One I plan to steal, thanks.
Arne: “We’ve decided to cut your funding unless you promise to carry out an expensive, unfudable mandate. And if you promise to carry out this high priced, unfundable mandate we will give you some gas money.”
When is someone going to sue over RttT? Can that be done?
The problem I have is that we had to agree to lift a cap on charters to get our federal tax dollars.
Why is that the DOE’s business? Why should they have say in how many charters NC wants to have?
Truly outrageous — how about fulfilling our obligation and better fund their schools without any caveats? Talk about insult to injury.
I work with a number of BIE schools on the Navajo rez and can tell you many of the programs are a disgrace. Two years ago, over 20 related service positions were cut in the western part of New Mexico, forcing many schools to provide “tele-therapy” for speech and counseling, or to forego these services altogether. Middle school students in sped are forced to sit through 90 minutes of rote, phonics drill and kill, while elementary teachers are told to spend 20 minutes on this skill, then 15 minutes on the next skill, all highly scripted, and none of which takes into account cultural considerations. Don’t even get me started on the poverty…three quarters of all people in the United States who live without electricity reside on the Navajo rez. It is conservatively estimated that 37% of the 48,000 households within the reservation lack electricity. Sixty-five percent who reside on the reservation live at or below the poverty level, with an annual per capita income of $6,124. Forty-eight percent of the homes do not have running water or indoor plumbing, and 80% have no central heat. Yeah, Obama – force them Natives to compete for resources – they haven’t been jacked over enough.
The schools/districts in Southern Utah – such as the Blanding area – have been misusing Fed funds geared towards tribal members for years. They get money to help Native students graduate, and they hire their white wardhouse members/relatives to do “outreach” in the tribe. Guess how well that goes over…lots of other things going on there too. But yes, definitely a great idea without even more money and force compliance and competition on a worthless set of metrics.
Enough…we as a nation should all be nauseous of this nonsense. Not to hijack the thread, but can sometime inform ED that this won’t work. Make up some stats like Dr. Berliner did in CA.
They learned many years ago not to trust the rich white men!
We really do have the educational equivalent of the hunger games going on. The wealthy elite live in the capital dictating to us and seeing our lives and children as less worthy than theirs. After all, if we were worthy, we’d be one of them via social darwinism.
The schools are thrown into the ring with the skills each has learned to survive over the years, and some are in the wealthier districts that can afford better trainers and train harder with the goal of simply helping their kids survive. This competition creates a reason for other people to want to throw other people’s lives and children under the bus so they can live a less miserable existence and have a greater chance for success for those they are close to (the children they know).
BIE is district 12 and those in charters are in District 1 (the schools that are better resourced and fighting for the rewards that success brings to their district even at the expense of others). Can BIE fight its own internal battle to determine its victors from the different sectors of its impoverished schools? How will they compete with children in the United States and internationally?
Meanwhile, those who are in power and creating this farce sit back, have their panem et circenses and keep their children away from the harm their pet projects inflict on others. If only they were willing to subject their own college and career ready sons and daughters to the social experiments being run on public school children to make education more efficient in producing worker bees, and not people who will live rich and creative lives (this is the view towards the end of Mockingjay where it is suggested we repeat the “Games” with the children of those who hurt everyone else’s children with the same treatment).
Good analogy. They pit us all against each other for their entertainment, the favored few given more resources.
For me this is especially nauseating. I have been in touch with the Indian College movement for a number of years and have been DEEPLY impressed with the kind of education they give, REAL education.
Now the Race to the bottom has seemingly reared its ugly head again. Anyone who is even slightly familiar with what has been perpetrated on our indigenous people should be appalled. If unfamiliar may I suggest “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” for at least a beginning.
As someone so cogently expressed it, something to the effect of: the white man – our government – has kept only one promise, they swore they would take our land and they took it. Every treaty has been broken, promises forgotten when people discovered gold or for some reason wished to take their land and their way of life.
The Native American peoples have no reason to trust anything the U.S. government proposes. I hope they continue to refuse to participate in this really sick version of the Hunger Games.