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100-297 gives the Director considerable new responsibility for development of and coordination of departmental policies in

Indian elementary and secondary education.

We are aware that the National Advisory Council on Indian Education has submitted a list of nominees from which the Secretary of Education must select the Director.

ience in educational affairs

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ANCCSB has reviewed the impressive credentials of John W. Tippeconnic, one of the candidates on the NACIE nomination list, and heartily supports him for the post of Director. His 20+ years of experincluding classroom teacher, university professor, curriculum designer, Indian education association president and former official of the Department of Education make him an excellent choice for this important job. Continuity is very important in Indian education, especially at DoEd, which serves Indian children in tribally-run schools, BIA-operated schools and public schools, and which must work with tribes in some 27 states. We need to know the people we work with at the Department and who we contact to rectify specific problems. For example, this year there was a considerable delay in getting Title VII bilingual education funds to tribal schools. With an OIE Director involved in coordinating the Department's delivery of services to Indian schools, perhaps such problems can be minimized.

ANCCSB would appreciate any assistance this Committee can provide to encourage the Secretary to make the final Director selection as soon as possible.

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Even Start Program. The second matter we want to address is Indian school and Indian tribe eligibility for grant programs administered by the Department of Education, particularly the Even Start program.

ANCCSB member schools and other contract and grant schools funded by the BIA suffered a great disappointment this year when the Department of Education refused to let them compete for grants under the new "Even Start" program.

It

"Even Start" was created by Congress last year as a part of the Hawkins-Stafford Education Act (P.L. 100-297). is designed for very young children whose parents have limited educational achievement and limited English proficiency.

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gress realized that parents are their children's first teachers, and created this family-oriented education program to better equip parents to contribute to their children's early learning years. In essence, the program is to give youngsters in the target families an "even start" in life with children from more educationally advanced families.

This program could be of immense value in Indian reservation communities. A high percentage of Indian parents have not finished high school. In many parts of Indian country where native languages are spoken in the home; parents are often not proficient in English. I know this is the case in many households on the Navajo Reservation, where I grew up. My family spoke Navajo in our home; my siblings and I learned English when

we went to school. While we want to continue to teach our children the Navajo language, we also want them to learn English at the same time so they can enjoy the same educational opportunities as other American children.

In some statutes, Congress has expressly "set aside" a portion of grant funding for Indian schools or otherwise expressly stated that Indian schools are eligible applicants. Since Indian schools were not expressly mentioned in the Even Start statute, DoEd decided they had no status at all, not even the opportunity to compete on an equal basis with state-funded public schools.

The Department has drafted an amendment to the Even Start law which, if enacted, would make Indian tribes and schools operated by tribes or tribal organizations eligible for Even Start grants. We seek the Committee's support and advocacy of this amendment.

The amendment would allow tribes and tribal organizations to compete equally with public schools for DoEd-awarded grants in years when the Even Start appropriations are less than $50 million. (For fiscal year 1990, Congress has recommended an appropriation of $24.5 million.)

In higher funding years

tions reach $50 million current law requires that block grants be made directly to states who make grants to individual school applicants. The Indian amendment would create the equivalent of a block grant for Indian applicants, with the DoEd

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administering the funds set aside for this purpose. While DoEd did not suggest what portion of the appropriation should be set aside for the Indian grants, ANCCSB recommends 3%, the same percentage reserved for Migrant Programs.

We would like to see an Even Start amendment enacted as soon as possible so that Indian children can have a chance to benefit from this program in 1990. We suggest that perhaps the

amendment could be added to the Vocational Education bill currently being considered by the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. Any assistance this Committee can provide in that regard will be greatly appreciated.

Other DoEd Grant Programs. We fear that Even Start is but one example of federal education grant programs closed to Indian schools and Indian tribes because DoEd interprets the authorizing statutes as excluding them from eligibility. It is for this reason that we asked the Department to survey each of its elementary and secondary grant programs and indicate whether the Department deems Indian schools/tribes eligible or ineligible applicants. If statutory amendments are necessary, we hope we can count on this Committee to support them.

White House Conference on Indian Education. Mr. Chairman, the Indian education community thanks this Committee for designing the P.L. 100-297 statutory framework for the White House Conference on Indian Education. We look forward to help

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ing with the planning of and participating in this important event. There is a problem, however, with which we need the Committee's help.

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P.L. 100-297 authorized funding for the Conference for fiscal year 1990, only. Through the efforts of many members of this Committee particularly Senator DeConcini Congress agreed to appropriate $500,000 in FY1990 to begin Conference planning. This clearly will not be sufficient funding. We ask, therefore, that the Committee take steps to amend the law to authorize the appropriation of funds in FY1991, also, the year in which the law requires the President to call this Conference.

Mr. Chairman, it was a pleasure to appear before you today. I will be happy to answer any questions you have.