Education Issues for American Indians & Alaska Natives (Education in a Competitive Globalizing World)

The federal government provides elementary and secondary education and educational assistance to Indian children, either directly through federally funded schools or indirectly through educational assistance to public schools. Direct education is provided by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) in the Department of the Interior, through elementary and secondary schools funded by the BIE. Federal provision of education services and assistance to Indian children is based not on race but on their membership, or eligibility for membership, in Indian tribes, which are political entities. This book provides a brief history of federal Indian education programs, a discussion of data on students served by these programs, an overview of the programs and their funding, a discussion of the application to BIE schools of key provision of the No Child Left behind Act, and discussions of select issues in Indian education.