[House Hearing, 114 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
EXAMINING THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT'S MISMANAGEMENT
OF NATIVE AMERICAN SCHOOLS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION
AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 14, 2015
__________
Serial No. 114-14
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
JOHN KLINE, Minnesota, Chairman
Joe Wilson, South Carolina Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott,
Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Virginia
Duncan Hunter, California Ranking Member
David P. Roe, Tennessee Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania Susan A. Davis, California
Tim Walberg, Michigan Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona
Matt Salmon, Arizona Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Brett Guthrie, Kentucky Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Todd Rokita, Indiana Jared Polis, Colorado
Lou Barletta, Pennsylvania Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Joseph J. Heck, Nevada Northern Mariana Islands
Luke Messer, Indiana Frederica S. Wilson, Florida
Bradley Byrne, Alabama Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
David Brat, Virginia Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
Buddy Carter, Georgia Mark Takano, California
Michael D. Bishop, Michigan Hakeem S. Jeffries, New York
Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin Katherine M. Clark, Massachusetts
Steve Russell, Oklahoma Alma S. Adams, North Carolina
Carlos Curbelo, Florida Mark DeSaulnier, California
Elise Stefanik, New York
Rick Allen, Georgia
Juliane Sullivan, Staff Director
Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on May 14, 2015..................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Kline, Hon. John, Chairman, Committee on Education and the
Workforce.................................................. 01
Prepared statement of.................................... 03
Scott, Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'', Ranking Member, Committee on
Education and the Workforce................................ 04
Prepared statement of.................................... 06
Statement of Witnesses:
Roessel, Dr. Charles, Director, Bureau of Indian Education,
Department of the Interior, Washington, DC................. 8
Prepared statement of.................................... 10
Mendoza, William, Mr., Executive Director, White House
Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education,
Department of Education, Washington, DC.................... 17
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Additional Submissions:
Questions submitted for the record by:
Thompson, Hon. Glenn, a Representative in Congress from the
state of Pennsylvania...................................... 55
Bureau of Indian Education, responses to questions submitted
for the record............................................. 58\
EXAMINING THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S
MISMANAGEMENT OF NATIVE AMERICAN SCHOOLS
----------
Thursday, May 14, 2015
U.S. House of Representatives,
Committee on Education and the Workforce,
Washington, D.C.
----------
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a.m., in Room
2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. John Kline [chairman
of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Kline, Foxx, Thompson, Walberg,
Guthrie, Rokita, Heck, Brat, Carter, Bishop, Grothman, Russell,
Curbelo, Stefanik, Allen, Scott, Grijalva, Polis, Bonamici,
Pocan, Takano, Jeffries, Adams, and DeSaulnier.
Staff present: Lauren Aronson, Press Secretary; Janelle
Belland, Coalitions and Members Services Coordinator; Kathlyn
Ehl, Professional Staff Member; Matthew Frame, Legislative
Assistant; Amy Raaf Jones, Director of Education and Human
Resources Policy; Nancy Locke, Chief Clerk; Daniel Murner,
Deputy Press Secretary; Krisann Pearce, General Counsel; Lauren
Reddington, Deputy Press Secretary; James Redstone,
Professional Staff Member; Mandy Schaumburg, Education Deputy
Director and Senior Counsel; Alissa Strawcutter, Deputy Clerk;
Leslie Tatum, Professional Staff Member; Brad Thomas, Senior
Education Policy Advisor; Tylease Alli, Minority Clerk/Intern
and Fellow Coordinator; Austin Barbera, Minority Staff
Assistant; Kelly Broughan, Minority Education Policy Advisor;
Jacque Chevalier, Minority Senior Education Policy Advisor;
Denise Forte, Minority Staff Director; and Tina Hone, Minority
Education Policy Director and Associate General Counsel.
Chairman Kline. A quorum being present, the Committee on
Education and the Workforce will come to order. Good morning.
Welcome, to our guests.
I would like to begin by thanking Dr. Roessel and Mr.
Mendoza for participating in the hearing.
I must say, we are disappointed that Kevin Washburn, the
assistant secretary of Indian affairs, declined an invitation
to join us this morning. I think Mr. Washburn would bring an
important perspective to this discussion, and it is unfortunate
the public and members of the committee will not hear from him
today.
However, we are pleased to have a distinguished panel of
witnesses and look forward to your testimonies today.
Today's hearing is part of an effort to begin addressing
the challenges facing Native American schools. In recent months
the nation has learned a great deal about the deplorable,
deplorable conditions affecting Native American schools. A
crisis has been festering for decades and, thanks in large part
to the investigative work of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and
others, it is finally receiving the national attention it
deserves.
The details we have learned are shocking: falling ceilings,
broken water heaters, electrical hazards, rotten floors, and
rodent-infested classrooms. At a school I visited earlier this
year, blankets hang over the doors in a desperate attempt to
keep out the cold air.
And I am talking cold air. In northern Minnesota, every
winter those temperatures drop down to 20, 30, sometimes 40
below.
In fact, thin metal walls are all that separate students
from harsh winters in states like Minnesota and South Dakota.
Meanwhile, classrooms lack the most basic school supplies, such
as desks, chairs, and textbooks.
At a recent oversight hearing we also learned that a
bungling bureaucracy is undermining the health and safety of
these Native American students as well as their education. The
nonpartisan Government Accountability Office notes that a
disorganized bureaucracy and poor communication make it
difficult, if not impossible, for schools to receive the
services and support they need, and GAO warns that if these
issues are not addressed, quote: ``it will be difficult for
Indian Affairs to ensure the long-term success of a generation
of students,'' close quote.
More than a century ago the federal government promised to
provide Native American students a quality education in a
manner that preserves their heritage, and we are failing to
keep that promise. If these were our loved ones going to these
schools, there is little doubt we would march down Pennsylvania
Avenue to demand real change.
Jill Burcum, an editorial writer for the Star Tribune, said
this at last month's hearing, quote: ``As a mom, I thought many
times that I would not be comfortable sending my children to
school in these buildings. Unfortunately, mothers of BIE
students don't have a choice, which is why action is
required.''
The purpose of today's hearing is not to assign blame.
There is plenty of blame to go around.
Instead, the purpose of this hearing is to understand the
root causes of these persistent challenges and to demand better
results. That is why we are pleased to have representatives
from the Departments of Interior and Education.
We are especially pleased to hear from you, Dr. Roessel,
since you and your staff are on the front lines.
We understand the Department of Interior plans to implement
a number of internal changes intended to fix the system. We
welcome that effort and are interested to learn more about it.
Questions have been raised about whether this effort will
address the fundamental problems facing the system or simply
rearrange the chairs at the department. Questions have also
been raised about whether this reorganization is taking place
in a timely manner or being delayed by the same bureaucratic
wrangling that has plagued these schools for decades.
The administration has a responsibility to answer these and
other important questions and to assure this committee,
Congress, and the country that we are finally moving in a new
direction. These vulnerable children and their families deserve
no less.
In closing, I would note that there are tough challenges
facing Native American students outside the jurisdiction of the
Department of Interior--challenges that demand our attention as
well. That is one reason why the Student Success Act provides
greater flexibility to all public schools, so they can more
effectively serve their unique student populations, including
Native American students. Policies in place today assume every
school faces the same set of challenges, but we know that is
not the case, and the Student Success Act would ensure federal
policies reflect that reality.
Replacing No Child Left Behind continues to be a top
priority and one that I am hopeful we will finish before the
end of the year. However, the challenges facing these
particular Native American students have been neglected for far
too long by members on both sides of the aisle.
I encourage my colleagues to avoid political distractions
that would merely shift the focus away from these unique,
vulnerable children. They have waited long enough for the
Federal Government to live up to its promises.
Every child in every school should receive an excellent
education. That is the goal we are all working toward, and
today's hearing is an important part of that effort.
With that, I will now recognize Mr. Scott, the ranking
member, for his opening remarks.
Prepared Statement of Hon. John Kline, Chairman
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good morning, and welcome to our guests. I'd like to begin by
thanking Dr. Roessel and Mr. Mendoza for participating in this hearing.
We are disappointed that Kevin Washburn, Assistant Secretary of Indian
Affairs, declined an invitation to join us this morning. Mr. Washburn
would bring an important perspective to this discussion, and it is
unfortunate the public and members of the committee will not hear from
him today. However, we are pleased to have a distinguished panel of
witnesses and look forward to your testimonies.
Today's hearing is part of an effort to begin addressing the
challenges facing Native American schools. In recent months, the nation
has learned a great deal about the deplorable conditions affecting
Native American schools. A crisis has been festering for decades, and
thanks in large part to the investigative work of the Minnesota Star
Tribune and others, it is finally receiving the national attention it
deserves.
The details we have learned are shocking: falling ceilings; broken
water heaters; electrical hazards; rotten floors; and rodent-infested
classrooms. At a school I visited earlier this year, blankets hang over
the doors in a desperate attempt to keep out the cold air. In fact,
thin metal walls are all that separate students from harsh winters in
states like Minnesota and South Dakota. Meanwhile, classrooms lack the
most basic school supplies, such as desks, chairs, and textbooks.
At a recent oversight hearing, we also learned that a bungling
bureaucracy is undermining the health and safety of these Native
American students, as well as their education. The nonpartisan
Government Accountability Office notes that a disorganized bureaucracy
and poor communication make it difficult - if not impossible - for
schools to receive the services and support they need, and GAO warns
that if these issues are not addressed, ``it will be difficult for
Indian Affairs to ensure the long-term success of a generation of
students.''
More than a century ago, the federal government promised to provide
Native American students a quality education in a manner that preserves
their heritage, and we are failing to keep that promise. If these were
our loved ones going to these schools, there is little doubt we would
march down Pennsylvania Avenue to demand real change.
Jill Burcum, an editorial writer for the Star Tribune, said this at
last month's hearing: ``As a mom, I thought many times that I would not
be comfortable sending my children to school in these buildings . . .
unfortunately, mothers of BIE students don't have a choice, which is
why action is required.''
The purpose of today's hearing is not to assign blame. There is
plenty of blame to go around. Instead, the purpose of this hearing is
to understand the root causes of these persistent challenges and to
demand better results. That is why we are pleased to have
representatives from the Departments of Interior and Education. We are
especially pleased to hear from you, Dr. Roessel, since you and your
staff are on the front lines.
We understand the department plans to implement a number of
internal changes intended to fix the system. We welcome that effort and
are interested to learn more about it. Questions have been raised about
whether this effort will address the fundamental problems facing the
system or simply rearrange the chairs at the department. Questions have
also been raised about whether this reorganization is taking place in a
timely manner or being delayed by the same bureaucratic wrangling that
has plagued these schools for decades.
The administration has a responsibility to answer these and other
important questions, and to assure this committee, Congress, and the
country that we are finally moving in a new direction. These vulnerable
children and their families deserve no less.
In closing, I would note that there are tough challenges facing
Native American students outside the jurisdiction of the Department of
Interior, challenges that demand our attention as well. That is one
reason why the Student Success Act provides greater flexibility to all
public schools, so they can more effectively serve their unique student
populations, including Native American students. Policies in place
today assume every school faces the same set of challenges, but we know
that's not the case, and the Student Success Act would ensure federal
policies reflect that reality.
Replacing No Child Left Behind continues to be a top priority and
one that I am hopeful we will finish before the end of the year.
However, the challenges facing these particular Native American
students have been neglected for far too long and by members on both
sides of the aisle. I encourage my colleagues to avoid political
distractions that would merely shift the focus away from these unique,
vulnerable children - they have waited long enough for the federal
government to live up to its promises.
Every child in every school should receive an excellent education.
That is the goal we are all working toward, and today's hearing is an
important part of that effort. With that, I will now recognize Ranking
Member Scott for his opening remarks.
______
Mr. Scott. Good morning, and thank you, Mr. Chairman, for
holding this hearing. This is the second hearing in as many
months on Indian education, but before that it had been 7 years
since a hearing had taken place. So I am grateful that today we
will be able to consider the full range of issues impacting
American Indian and Alaska Native students.
Our prior hearing focused on the deplorable conditions of
many schools operated by the Bureau of Indian Education. It was
important, and I am pleased that the Bureau of Indian Education
will be sharing their plans to address these conditions with us
today.
And, Mr. Chairman, as this is not a partisan issue, none of
us want to see any student going to a school in the conditions
as you have described. Schools need to be fixed. They need to
be fixed without delay.
The conditions of these school buildings not only affects
the health and safety of students, it impacts their ability to
learn and sends a disheartening message that these conditions
are good enough.
We want to be clear: it isn't good enough. The students
should not have to go to school in freezing classrooms, leaking
roofs, exposed wires. These conditions should not persist.
I am eager to hear from the Bureau of Indian Education
about its recent reforms and initiatives to improve these
unacceptable conditions.
I am also eager to work with you, Mr. Chairman, and the
committee to ensure that there is adequate federal funding to
remedy these conditions. Appropriations for construction for
BIE schools have fallen 64 percent from 2006 to 2015. This
sharp reduction in funding has doubtlessly contributed to the
deplorable conditions of many of the schools.
However, as important as it is to fix these school
buildings, we must also acknowledge that fixing the buildings
will only solve a small part of the problem. Only 7 percent of
American Indian students attend BIE schools; the vast majority,
about 93 percent, attend regular public schools. Addressing the
challenges facing these students requires a comprehensive and
coordinated commitment across agencies.
For that reason, I am particularly pleased that Bill
Mendoza, the executive director of the White House Initiative
on American Indian and Alaska Native Education, is here today.
And I am particularly eager to learn about the important work
of Generation Indigenous, an initiative focused on removing the
barriers that stand between American Indian and Alaskan Native
youth and their opportunity to succeed.
Look forward to hearing more about this comprehensive
approach that includes work from the Department of Education,
Health and Human Services, and the Department of Interior.
The Federal Government holds a special trust responsibility
with tribal nations. Treaties, laws, and court decisions
require the Federal Government to protect tribal lands and
sovereignty.
We must also provide resources to ensure the success of
tribal communities. The delivery of educational services is
arguable the most important resource that we can provide, and
sadly, it is an obligation that we have not met.
The reality is that American Indian and Alaskan Native
children face some of the bleakest outcomes of any racial or
ethnic subgroup in the United States. These students have the
lowest school graduation rate, with an aggregate graduation
rate of about 69 percent.
When we look at the graduation rate for students in the
Bureau of Indian Education schools, the picture is even worse.
Barely half of the students graduate in 4 years.
A 2011 study from the Alliance for Excellent Education
spoke to the impact of the high dropout rate and pointed out
that if many of the students were graduating, they would be
earning a lot more than they are earning today. This kind of
economic loss is a tragedy for individuals. This also impacts
the economic future of our nation.
There are opportunities to change things. Many tribes are
optimistic about the work at the Department of Interior and
through the White House initiative. However, after centuries of
neglect, there is also skepticism.
The long history of broken federal promises to tribes and
their children requires Congress to be vigilant in our
oversight, and it is important that our witnesses understand
that we are watching and we are committed to make things right.
So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank our witnesses for being here, and I look forward
to their testimony.
I yield back.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Ranking Member,
Committee on Education and the Workforce
Good morning and thank you, Chairman Kline, for holding this
hearing. This is the second hearing in as many months on Indian
education. Before that, it had been seven years since a hearing had
taken place.
I am grateful that today we will be able to consider the full range
of issues impacting American Indian and Alaska Native students. Our
prior hearing focused on the deplorable conditions of many schools
operated by the Bureau of Indian Education. That was important and I am
pleased that the Bureau of Indian Education will be sharing with us its
plans to address these conditions. You should know that there is no
partisanship on this issue. None of us want to see any student going to
school in conditions like the ones we learned about at the last
hearing. The schools need to be fixed. And they need to be fixed
without delay.
The condition of BIE school buildings not only affects the health
and safety of students, it impacts their ability to learn and sends a
disheartening message that these conditions are ``good enough'' for
you. I want to be very clear: it isn't. No student should go to school
in freezing classrooms, with leaking roofs and exposed wires. These
conditions cannot persist.
I am eager to hear from the Bureau of Indian Education about its
recent reforms and initiatives to improve these unacceptable
conditions. I am also eager to work with Chairman Kline to ensure that
there is adequate federal funding to remedy these conditions.
Appropriations for construction of BIE schools have fallen 64%, from
$206.7 million in FY2006 to $74.5 million in FY2015. This sharp
reduction in funding has doubtlessly contributed to the deplorable
conditions of many BIE schools.
However, as important as it is to fix BIE school buildings, we must
also acknowledge that fixing these buildings will only solve a small
part of the problem. Only 7% of American Indian students attend BIE
schools. The vast majority - 93%--attend regular public schools.
Addressing the challenges facing these students requires a
comprehensive and coordinated commitment across agencies.
For that reason, I am especially pleased that Bill Mendoza,
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and
Alaska Native Education is here today. I am particularly eager to learn
about the important work of Generation Indigenous, an initiative
focused on removing the barriers that stand between American Indian and
Alaska Native youth and their opportunity to succeed. I look forward to
hearing more about this comprehensive approach that includes work from
the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, and the
Department of Interior.
The federal government holds a special trust responsibility to
tribal nations. Treaties, laws, and court decisions require the federal
government to protect tribal lands and sovereignty. It must also
provide resources to ensure the success of tribal communities. The
delivery of educational services is arguably the most important
resource we can provide. Sadly, it has not been an obligation that has
been met well.
The reality is American Indian and Alaska Native children face some
of the bleakest outcomes of any racial and ethnic subgroup in the
United States. These students have the lowest high school graduation
rates, with only 69% graduating in four years in aggregate. When we
look at the graduation rate for students in Bureau of Indian Education
schools, the picture is even worse. Only 53%--barely half--of students,
graduate in four years.
A 2011 study from the Alliance for Excellent Education calculated
the economic impact of this high dropout rate as follows:
``If just half of the 24,700 American Indian and Alaska Native
students from the Class of 2010 who dropped out of high school had
graduated, together these 12,350 new graduates would likely be earning
an additional $147 million each year compared to what they will earn
without a high school diploma.''
This kind of economic loss is a tragedy for the individuals. It
also impacts the economic future of our nation.
There are opportunities to change things. Many tribes are
optimistic about the work at Interior and through the White House
Initiative. However, after centuries of neglect, there is also
skepticism. The long history of broken federal promises to tribes and
their children requires Congress to be vigilant in our oversight. It is
important that our witnesses understand that we watching and committed
to making things right.
Thank you for being here today. I look forward to hearing your
testimony. With that, I yield back.
______
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman.
Pursuant to committee rule 7(c), all members will be
permitted to submit written statements to be included in the
permanent hearing record. And without objection, the hearing
record will remain open for 14 days to allow such statements
and other extraneous material referenced during the hearing to
be submitted for the official hearing record.
I will now introduce our distinguished witnesses.
Dr. Monty Roessel is the director of the Bureau of Indian
Education within the U.S. Department of the Interior and
previously served as BIE's associate deputy director for Navajo
schools. Prior to coming to BIE, he served the Rough Rock
Community School, a BIE-funded, tribally operated, K-12
boarding school on the Navajo Nation Reservation as director of
community services and then as executive director.
Welcome, sir.
Mr. Bill Mendoza is executive director for the White House
Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. The
initiative supports activities that expand educational
opportunities and improve education outcomes for all American
Indian and Alaska Native students. Prior to his appointment, he
served as the deputy director and executive director for the
White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges.
I will now ask our witnesses to stand and to raise your
right hand.
Do you solemnly swear and affirm that the testimony you are
about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing
but the truth?
Let the record reflect the witnesses answered in the
affirmative, as they always do.
Please, be seated.
Before I recognize you to provide your testimony, let me
briefly explain our lighting system, which I understand has
been explained to both of you already, but now you are looking
at the little high-tech machines in front of you.
You have 5 minutes to present your testimony. When you
begin, the light in front of you will turn green; when 1 minute
is left, the light will turn yellow; and when your time is
expired, the light will turn red. At that point, I will ask you
wrap up your remarks as best you are able.
I have never stopped a witness in mid-testimony, and I
won't today. We want to hear from you. But please, as you see
those lights change, try to wrap up, because then we want to
get to questions and answers.
I will try to strictly enforce the 5-minute rule when we
get into questions and comments from members of the committee,
and we will be looking at lights there again, too, because I
want to move it around and give everybody have a chance to be
in the conversation.
Okay. We are ready to start.
Dr. Roessel, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF DR. CHARLES ROESSEL, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF INDIAN
EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mr. Roessel. Good morning, Chairman Kline, Ranking Member
Scott, and members of the committee. My name is Monty Roessel
and I am the director of the Bureau of Indian Education. I
appreciate the opportunity to testify today on the reform of
BIE.
Prior to the development of the blueprint for reform, the
American Indian Education Study Group examined BIE intensely.
Many of the GAO findings were also reviewed and discovered by
the group. Therefore, within the bureau's blueprint for reform
and the proposed reorganization are recommendations that
address issues of a lack of communication, a lack of adequate
staff to oversee school spending, and a lack of clear
accountability.
Some examples of changes that we have already implemented
to address a lack of communication: BIE has developed an
electronic newsletter, a monthly webinar series on issues
ranging from operation and maintenance calculations for
facilities, to preparing for the new school construction
application. BIE also holds monthly staff calls and monthly
stakeholder calls. A directory of BIE staff and facility staff
is now on our Web site.
The blueprint for reform and the realignment needed to
implement it is not a BIE plan or my plan, but it is a
restructuring that embeds the voices of over 400 Indian
stakeholders. Every new box on the org chart is based on the
ideas and contributions of education and tribal leaders,
parents and teachers, administrators, and students. These are
not just boxes on an org chart, but ideas from the Mississippi
Band of Choctaw, the Hopi, the Navajo, the Yankton Sioux, the
Shoshone-Bannock, and many of the 64 tribes that have BIE
schools.
I understand that the GAO has said that we do not have a
strategic plan or a communication plan and have not implemented
any of the recommendations. I disagree.
It must be noted that we are in the middle of tribal
consultations. We have posted our strategic plan and
accompanying communication plans for review. We are awaiting
completion of tribal consultation before finalizing, but we are
still using the outline of the plan and will post updates on
the progress of our strategic plan this July.
However, BIE has also taken immediate steps to ensure the
accountability of funds at our schools. In 2014, there were 23
overdue management decisions due to audit issues at schools. As
of today and for the last 5 months, we have zero. We are
finalizing a financial monitoring tool and process that will
ensure fiscal responsibility and accountability.
The only focus of restructuring of BIE, from my
perspective, is to improve the academic outcomes for our Indian
students. Every decision must contribute to this goal. In other
words, education must be the primary function of the
instructional leader.
Through our reorganization we have clarified roles and
responsibilities based on school functions. We have streamlined
communications. We have empowered instructional leaders to have
the tools necessary to make decisions to improve education in
the classroom and school.
Here is a snapshot of what the BIE reform will look like:
In New Mexico's Isleta Elementary School, as a newly formed,
tribally controlled school, they will receive specific tools to
safeguard that internal controls are implemented to ensure
clean audits, and also training for school board and effective
governance.
In Minnesota's Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School they will receive
additional support to continue their immersion program. From
our recently developed native language framework they will
receive support in better utilizing their portion of BIE's 24
million dollars to teach native languages with an eye towards
fluency.
When I was associate deputy director for Navajo schools I
instituted a district model. I realigned functions and
clarified roles, much like you would do with any school
district in this country.
I sought to unify professional development for teachers. We
developed processes and protocols for instructional rounds that
focused on improvement, not punishment.
What were the results? For our Navajo BIE-operated schools,
we went from making 29 percent of our schools making AYP to
54.8 percent of our BIE-operated making AYP. This is the design
and philosophy we are implementing across BIE.
It is no secret that many of our school buildings are in
much need of replacement and repair. Fifty-eight of our school
buildings are in poor conditions.
With the '15 budget and our proposed '16 budget, we are
able to finally complete the 2004 lists. As part of our reform
efforts, we are developing a long-range school construction
plan that is much needed and long overdue.
In the department's '16 request we are being more strategic
when it comes to school construction. Some of our schools only
need a building replaced and not an entire campus. Our request
includes component replacement in addition to full school
replacement.
The department is committed to improving the conditions of
schools within BIE so all students have a safe place to learn.
I am happy to answer any questions.
[The statement of Dr. Roessel follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much, Dr. Roessel.
Mr. Mendoza, you are recognized.
STATEMENT OF MR. WILLIAM MENDOZA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WHITE
HOUSE INITITATIVE ON AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE
EDUCATION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mr. Mendoza. Good morning, Chairman Kline, and Ranking
Member Scott, and the members of the committee. My name is
William Mendoza and I am the executive director for the White
House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education
at the U.S. Department of Education.
I appreciate the opportunity to testify today about the
Initiative's work to expand educational opportunities and to
improve outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native
students, including those attending tribal colleges and
universities.
Coincidentally, yesterday Secretary Duncan participated in
a Native youth roundtable in Denver as a part of the
President's Generation Indigenous Initiative. The plight of
Native youth is an important issue for the nation and for this
administration. Secretary Duncan has visited Indian country 11
times, and much of what I will outline today is informed by the
conversations he and our staff have had throughout Indian
country.
Throughout this administration, we have worked to implement
a policy of self-determination and to strengthen the
government-to-government relationship with tribal nations. ED
understands that the best solutions for American Indian and
Alaska Native students come from those who know these students
best: the tribes. Since 2010, ED has held over 35 national
consultations with tribes and tribal leaders around the country
to seek their ideas about the education challenges they face
and the needs of their communities.
In December of 2014, during the White House Tribal Nations
Conference, the President announced his Gen-I Initiative, a
comprehensive effort designed to address the educational needs,
physical health, mental health, and social service needs of
Native youth. Through Gen-I, the administration is working hard
to bolster efforts focused on Native Americans, including
Native youth, by launching a targeted youth engagement program,
a new demonstration grant priority through the Department of
Education, and a continuation of the Bureau of Indian Education
reform efforts.
While about 8 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native
students attend bureau-funded schools, the vast majority attend
public schools operated by local school districts on and off
reservations and tribal lands.
We are encouraged by the positive progress among American
Indian and Alaska Native students, and this is thanks to the
hard work of teachers, parents, and students. The graduation
rate for American Indian students has increased by more than 4
percentage points over 2 years, the largest increase of any
group of students.
Unfortunately, it is still much lower than the national
rate. The 2014 White House Native Youth Report highlights that
there is still much more work to be done.
The current outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native
students are unacceptable for this nation and the
administration. We can and must fix this.
The Department of Education provides support to improve
outcomes for Native students in a variety of ways. There are
large-dollar programs, such as Title I, for high-poverty
schools, and Impact Aid for school districts for children
residing on Indian lands. In addition, the department
administers several formula grants as well as competitive
grants designed to support the unique cultural and academic
needs of Native students.
Some of ED's efforts to address the needs of these students
include a specific priority for these students in ED's new
supplemental priorities, which are available for use in all ED
discretionary grants.
We also published a notice inviting applications for the
Native Youth Community Projects, for which the administration
is also requesting a $50 million increase in the President's
2016 budget. The Native Youth Community Projects will fund
culturally relevant strategies to improve college and career
readiness for children and youth in tribal communities.
Additionally, the White House Initiative and ED's Office
for Civil Rights conducted a series of listening sessions
around the country and heard testimony from Native youth on
bullying, disproportionate discipline, stereotypes, and the
harmful effects of imagery and symbolism.
Moreover, the administration's Promise Zones Initiative is
partnering closely with hard-hit urban, rural, and tribal
communities to create jobs, increase economic activity, improve
educational opportunities, and reduce violent crime. These
Promise Zones currently include the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South Dakota and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
ED's Office of Indian Education currently allocates nearly
$2 million a year to 5 of ED's comprehensive centers, including
one content center, to provide technical assistance to state
educational agencies and other support targeted to improve
outcomes for Native students.
And interagency cooperation is vital to the success of
these initiatives. Secretary Duncan and Secretary Jewell have
worked together to strengthen the relationship between their
agencies, especially regarding the Bureau of Indian Education.
They have held several events to highlight the importance
of Indian education, and in 2013, the secretaries convened the
Bureau of Indian Education Study Group that Director Roessel
mentioned to identify and take action on the systemic
challenges facing the BIE to ensure that all students attending
BIE-funded schools have access to a world-class education.
The two agencies are also working together through various
initiatives to strengthen technical assistance between these
agencies for Bureau-funded schools. In response to the request
from tribes, ED collaborated with DOI to provide guidance to
tribally controlled schools on how they may use annual funds.
I would be happy to answer any questions and there are
expansions in my testimony.
[The statement of Mr. Mendoza follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much.
Thank you both very much. We will start now with member
questioning.
I will start by asking--Dr. Roessel, I was listening to
your testimony, and you said education is the goal. And Mr.
Mendoza said the same thing, and Mr. Scott. We want these
Native American students to be well educated.
But you can't be well educated, in my opinion, when you are
attending school wearing your coat and wearing your mittens and
hoping that the blanket keeps out the 30-degree-below-zero air.
So safety--we have got to start with safety.
You have got collapsing roofs, leaking roofs, buckling
floors, exposed wires, popping circuit breakers, gas leaks.
That is totally, totally unacceptable. There is no way to get
that education and to learn under those conditions.
So when I was touring the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School up in
the Chippewa National Forest in northern Minnesota, and I saw
all of these things I said, ``Well, how can this be? Where is
the list that shows when this school is going to be fixed?''
And by the way, it is not that money isn't being spent.
They are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars making
repairs. And yet, the school is still fundamentally a metal
pole barn with all of those safety hazards.
So how can it be that this school has not been on the list
for replacement? How can that be? How can you have a system
with a school like that?
And yet, the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School is not on the
list. So how can that be?
Mr. Roessel. Mr. Chairman, the process of school
construction within BIE and Indian Affairs within the
department is there was a list that was created in 2004--
priority list. And currently right now, with the '15 budget we
have enough money to build and rebuild the Beatrice Rafferty
School. And in our proposed '16 we have finally money that is
being asked to build the last of that 2004 list: the Little
Singer School as well as Cove Day School.
Indian Affairs, through DFMC--Division of Facilities,
Maintenance, and Construction--they are in the process of
finalizing an application to create the next list. That is the
process that we have.
When I was the co-chairman of the Negotiated Rulemaking
Construction Committee prior to becoming the director, we
viewed a lot of these schools. I have been to the Bug School
and I have seen those deplorable conditions--and I agree, it is
one of the biggest frustrations that we have.
In order to repair all of our schools, that report said
that we would need $1.3 billion. And so of course right now we
don't have $1.3 billion. But what we do have within the process
is to align with that new list is a plan going forward much
like the Department of Defense did when they had a long-term
plan to repair their buildings.
So we are in the process of developing a 6- to 7-year plan
to begin that process. I think we start on that road by first
having the first Beatrice Rafferty and add two more schools--
Chairman Kline. When--excuse me for interrupting. When
would we see that plan?
Mr. Roessel. We hope to have it this summer--the final plan
that will be aligned with the new school construction list. It
is our hope that with the new school construction list that is
coming up, the applications are due the end of June, and then
we will go through the review of those lists and then make it
public at the end of this summer. And that way then we would
have a ranking of the next list for construction and also in
concert with our plan to move forward with our '17 budget and
beyond.
Chairman Kline. Well, we are looking forward to that plan,
and I think that the Native American students and American
people, as they are starting to learn more and more about this,
are frustrated because we don't ever seem to get to it. So if
you drive through to completion here and let's see this plan,
but I am concerned because the Bug School, which I say the same
thing, it is a whole lot easier to pronounce, that wasn't even
on the list.
And it is not safe. And we are spending hundreds of
thousands of dollars to make yearly repairs. It is just not
money wisely spent when we should be replacing the school.
I will try to set the example here and yield back my time
with 10 seconds to spare.
Mr. Scott, you are recognized.
Mr. Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Dr. Roessel, let me follow through on that. You said you
needed more money. What is the status of your funding request?
Mr. Roessel. In our '16 budget we have two areas. One of
the things that we have done also with our budget is try to be
more strategic, when I said we can--in my opening statement--
replace an entire school or just a component. That allows us to
actually address more--
Mr. Scott. Well, you said you needed more money. What is
the status of that request?
Mr. Roessel. Well, we have asked in the '16 budget for
about $45 million for new school construction.
Mr. Scott. And did it make it into the administration
budget?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, it did.
Mr. Scott. Do you know what the status of it is in the
appropriations committees?
Mr. Roessel. No, I don't.
Mr. Scott. I understand the Cherokee Nation, since 2002,
has contributed $19 million to schools serving their students.
Why did they have to put up the--was it their responsibility to
put up this money, or were they just making up for what the
Federal Government wasn't doing?
Mr. Roessel. I am not exactly sure what their intent was to
do that. Some schools do--
Mr. Scott. Well, their schools are doing better than
others.
Mr. Roessel. Some tribes do provide additional funds for
targeted areas that they have goals and priorities, such as
maybe Native language or some specific issue like that.
Mr. Scott. Well, their schools are doing better. Should
they have had to have put up that kind of money, or should that
have been a federal responsibility?
Mr. Roessel. The federal responsibility is to provide the
education, and through BIE we are. Programs that are above and
beyond that I think are at the discretion of tribes and part of
their--at their discretion.
Mr. Scott. Okay. You indicated a significant improvement in
schools--in bureau schools--making annual adequate yearly
progress, but still, half are still failing. When can we expect
virtually all of the schools to come up to standard?
Mr. Roessel. I think in a reform effort it takes 3 to 5
years as we move forward. I think we are taking some action
immediately that has shown improvement.
The focus of our reform efforts is how do you improve the
instruction in a classroom. That is what we are trying to
build. Everything builds upon that, even the school buildings.
You know, how do you expect to improve instruction if the walls
are falling around them? So it is a comprehensive approach that
we are addressing.
What our plan is, is you build a better system of
instruction, a better system of leadership, a better system of
accountability for that, and I think that is what our reform
effort does. It does align our accountability, and in the past
we had people doing a lot of different things. Now we have had
clear roles and responsibilities.
Mr. Scott. A recent GAO report suggested a huge number of
vacant positions: 40 percent of regional facility positions are
currently vacant. Is that still true?
Mr. Roessel. I would believe so at this point. BIA is not
under my purview, but I don't think that we have made any big
gains in hiring people.
Mr. Scott. Is that affecting your ability to educate
children?
Mr. Roessel. Not directly at this point. What is affecting
our inability is trying to get our staff--BIE teachers and
principals--hired, and I think that is something that we are
doing with quality people, and I think that is something that
we want to do as we move forward.
Mr. Scott. Mr. Mendoza, one of the things that we are
finding on solving achievement gaps--one of the things we are
finding is that the achievement gap doesn't happen in school,
it happens outside of school--children starting out behind,
summer slide, where they regressed during the summer, and other
outside of the schoolhouse. What can be done to reduce the
achievement gap by presenting a holistic approach to education
rather than just a in-school approach?
Mr. Mendoza. Appreciate the question, Congressman Scott.
The challenges, as you mentioned, are needing a collective
impact approach, and I think this is one of the not only tenets
of how we have tried to respond to what we have heard from not
only tribal leaders and educators, but that there is a shared
responsibility, there are tribes who, like the Cherokee, are
willing to resource more to, you know, really address those
challenging needs that many of our American Indian and Alaska
Native students are dealing with.
And so our Native Youth Community Projects were designed
with this focus in mind, to take culturally responsive
approaches in a comprehensive way to provide for the kind of
flexibilities that we have heard from tribal leaders and
educators and to be able to apply those, whether those services
are needed in school or out of school, but to keep focus on the
college and career readiness that we know that those students
will need to get to to not only aspire to complete, but to also
get at, you know, the really core issue is jobs within Indian
country.
So through the Native Youth Community Projects, through the
Promise Zones Initiative, much of the shared goals around
building tribal capacity to do this work, and then the
partnership components all, as I would frame as collective
impact, are essential to creating much more different contexts
than we have historically been involved with.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman's time has indeed expired.
Mr. Carter?
Mr. Carter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you, Dr. Roessel and Mr. Mendoza, for being here.
Let me preface my remarks by sincerely saying that if at
any time I appear to be disrespectful that it is not my intent
to do that. But I have some questions for someone who--
truthfully, I have never even been on--to one of the tribes or
visited your area, so I don't really understand it that well.
But I just want to ask you, are there students who are on
the reservations--do they have the option to attend a public
school if there is one nearby?
Mr. Mendoza. They do. And many reservations, as I said in
my testimony, are--have public schools that--over that--well,
all of them do. And so the vast--
Mr. Carter. All--
Mr. Mendoza.--the vast majority of Native students, 93
percent, attend public schools. So any given reservation and
upwards of 50 percent to 70 percent of their reservation
population are attending a public school.
Mr. Carter. If the performance, as you testified and as we
have learned, the performance of the Indian schools are below
that of the public schools, why don't we just let the public
schools onto the reservations and have the public schools
there?
Mr. Roessel. I think the--when we have--you know, we have
183 schools in our system, and 129 of those are operated by
tribes. The reason tribes get involved is they are able to
operate, so they are able to exercise their tribal sovereignty.
They are able to teach Native language; they are able to teach
Native history; they are able to teach Native culture.
In public schools you don't have that same opportunity.
Well, some schools do. Some districts do. But that is a big
reason why tribes want to maintain that control of their
education.
Mr. Carter. And I understand that, and I am fully
respectful of that, but if that option were there and if we
made sure that option were there, wouldn't it make more sense,
instead of duplicating something, to just try to incorporate it
in there? And I am very respectful of the fact that you want--
and very thankful that you want to maintain your heritage, and
I think that is extremely important. But it just appears to me
that could be done through the public school system.
Mr. Mendoza. So, Mr. Carter, I think that goal is a part of
this comprehensive work. The way that tribes see this, and
certainly Native students, is that language, history, and
culture for any student--and this is what they have been
telling us--is the foundation of their ability to succeed in
all of the other areas that the world is working to advance.
And the diversity that represents, the ways of knowing--
bringing--that they bring to those school systems, whether that
is reflected in the Bureau of Indian Education schools or
public schools, are the kinds of condition that we know are not
only driving innovation and excellence for other areas of the
country where we are bringing diverse perspectives to the
country, but it is also addressing an economic imperative.
You know, these are some of the most economically depressed
concentrations in the country, and this should be a priority
and focus for not only bureau-funded schools, but public
schools as well. So the keys to success is having that
reflected within the school systems, and that is where we are
trying to bring partnerships together to address those
challenges.
Mr. Carter. I understand that. But it appears to me that it
is much more of a problem than just the physical facilities.
What about--tell me about your teachers. If a teacher on a
reservation in an Indian school--do you only take teachers who
are Indian?
Mr. Roessel. Within our Bureau at Indian Education we have,
again, those two systems. So one are federal employees, and so
they are paid very well.
Then you have tribal schools, and they don't only take
tribal members. They will take the best-qualified teacher they
can. Now, that is--
Mr. Carter. But if that qualified teacher doesn't
understand the heritage and culture and everything, then that
is not doing what you want it to do.
Mr. Roessel. Well, I think one of the things that happens
with these schools on the reservations is they also then
provide programs and opportunities to teach the teachers on the
students. I think that is--
Mr. Carter. Okay, that--and I don't mean to interrupt you.
I understand. But the final question I have is exactly that.
Do you ever take those teachers who are at the Indian
schools and have them interact with the teachers who are at the
public schools who are succeeding and we know that they are
doing things that work, so that they can learn and take that
back with them?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, we do. And I think it is important to
mention, too, that it is not that public schools are way up
here at BIE. There is a school in Arizona, Tuba City Boarding
School, and it is--across the street there is a public school--
high school. Tuba City Boarding School has made AYP 8, 9 years
in a row. The public schools around it have not. Teachers that
are teaching at the public school have their kids go to our
school.
So it is--what we are trying to do is take those successes,
where we have them, and scale them up.
What is it that they have there? They have strong
leadership. They have strong professional development. They
have these things that can help build. That is what we are
looking at.
I think to pit us against public schools--you know, there
are very good public schools on reservations; there are very
good BIE schools on reservations. How can we learn from both?
I think the ability to have both--you know, we talk about
school choice. Well, that is school choice. We talk about a
tribally controlled school. What that really is a charter
school. They have a federal system, and that is a tribal--a
federal type of charter school in a way, so they are able to do
different things.
So I think it is wrong to say just public schools are doing
so much better. I think there are pockets of success and we
need to learn from both pockets. And--
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Takano?
Mr. Takano. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Roessel, I represent Riverside, California, and I have
Sherman Indian Institute in my district. Can you tell the
committee--many committee members don't know that we have
residential Indian--Native American schools. How many of them
exist in our country? Do you have a number?
Mr. Roessel. We have--trying to get the exact number here--
about 30 percent of our schools have residential programs with
them, and we have standalone residential dorms that those
students then go to public schools, and then we also have
schools like Sherman that actually have a school and a
residential program combined.
Mr. Takano. So it is a boarding school. It is a boarding
school.
Mr. Roessel. Boarding school.
Mr. Takano. How many of those boarding schools, like mine,
exist in the country? There are relatively few, aren't there?
Mr. Roessel. Well, like yours, that is from an area, there
are five. I believe there are five--
Mr. Takano. Five in the country?
Mr. Roessel.--serve a large population. But we have quite a
few across the system individually, like in Navajo and Akomas.
Mr. Takano. But there are five that are like mine, that are
like Sherman Indian Institute. And they--any Indian Native
American or indigenous person can go to these schools if they
find out about it, right? They have a right to go to one of
these schools?
Mr. Roessel. Yes.
Mr. Takano. About how much money do we spend on these five
schools?
Mr. Roessel. I would have to get back to you on the exact
number of that.
Mr. Takano. Do you have a knowledge of how well the
students are doing in these residential schools like Sherman?
Mr. Roessel. A lot of our--
Mr. Takano. And who--what kind of students tend to go to
these schools?
Mr. Roessel. A lot of our off-reservation boarding schools
are coming from homes that are not the best and conducive for
learning. Some are trying to get away from certain avenues.
Some are court-ordered students. Some want to just try a
different part of the country and attend.
So you have a myriad of different types of students from
many different tribal backgrounds, too. We have, I believe
Sherman in Riverside. We have a Riverside school in Anadarko,
Oklahoma and we have like 40 different tribes that are served
there.
Mr. Takano. So in general these schools tend to have
students that come from backgrounds that are challenged. Is
that fair to say?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, that is fair.
Mr. Takano. And that is--that tends to be the student
population at these schools. Do you feel that they are
adequately funded?
Mr. Roessel. I think in the case--some of them I--it is
difficult to say. The Sherman Indian School has a very
progressive vocational program, and it is the best in our
system.
Mr. Takano. Partly funded by one of the local wealthy
tribes.
Mr. Roessel. Exactly.
Mr. Takano. Yes.
Mr. Roessel. One of the tribes. Exactly.
Mr. Takano. Mr. Mendoza, I noticed that a lot of these
students come from Navajo country. Do you know about this--do
you know about Sherman Institute, and the student body there,
and the fact that many of the students come from Navajo
country?
Mr. Mendoza. I do. I do. We actually had a large delegation
from Sherman Indian School participate in our student
environment listening sessions that we had in Los Angeles, and
so we heard direct testimony from them about not only the
challenges that they face in finding their way to an
opportunity like Sherman Indian School, but the challenges that
they feel like they have within that setting, and they really
emphasized they are worried about where they are going next.
And so I think to get back to Mr. Carter's point about the
comprehensive nature of this work, it is absolutely essential
for us to begin to look at not only how tribes are meaningfully
involved in there, but also the individual student experience
and the continuum that they move along.
Mr. Takano. Given that these students come from challenged
backgrounds, is there enough proprietary interest by the
stakeholders in the governance structure?
I have a lot of school districts that I work with, I have
school boards that are elected, and they are local and I can
work directly with them. But the struggle for me as a member of
Congress who represents such a school--and I want to make it--I
want to be able to create a school and encourage the
development of a school that is truly a center of excellence
and opportunity and to do the things necessary to connect them
to the local community college, the University of California,
whatever we have to do--to the private universities in the
area.
But it is elusive how to deal with a governance structure--
I understand that a lot of time there is not enough people for
a quorum for the governance or that--it must be difficult to
have governance from--of a school where the tribal members are
kind of distant from the school itself. I mean, do you feel
there is an--the governance structure is adequate?
Mr. Mendoza. I think any governance structure, if it is
leading to outcomes that raise concerns for us and we can
identify areas where we can be better, I think that could take
some work. And I know that we see that at the--through the
study group, through the reforms that Director Roessel is
putting in place. I think that is an acknowledgement that we
can do things better for school districts. Certainly Sherman
Indian represents that.
We need to be purposeful about that. If we are going to
change that, it takes education. It takes organization, and it
takes providing the kind of supports that school boards need,
ensuring that our teachers and our leaders are not only quality
when we bring them into the institution, but if there is
mediocracy there then we need to be addressing that.
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
We have--my colleagues on both sides are playing the ask-
the-question-with-15-seconds-left, and then we are getting the
answer. And I want everybody to have their full 5 minutes so I
am going to be a little bit more aggressive.
And I apologize in advance to Dr. Roessel and Mr. Mendoza,
if I stop you in the answer, because we have a lot of members
that just want to ask questions.
Mr. Takano. I apologize.
Chairman Kline. I am just watching you.
Mr. Russell, you are recognized.
Mr. Russell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you both for your testimony here today, and also
your efforts that you do in trying to make this education
better.
In the course of the testimony it has come up that both the
Cherokee and Choctaw tribes, which obviously we have Oklahoma
ties to, have had some success in dealing with a lot of the
educational concerns, largely due to good leadership and also
tribal resources that are made available. So it shows that
success stories can happen with good leadership and good
resources.
It seems that the streamlining of leadership and resources
among the various agencies would focus the effort and give it
more educational impact. If they were all under the BIE, Dr.
Roessel, how would you change the current system?
Mr. Roessel. All BIE schools, or--
Mr. Russell. For the educational shortfalls that we are
seeing, if you were given full responsibility, rather it--than
it being dispersed among the various agencies, how would you
fix it?
Mr. Roessel. Well, I think one of the first things I would
do is expand the participation of tribes. These are their
students. This is their future. And I think too often in the
past we have actually not provided a place for them to be in
looking at the education.
They are the ones that are closest to those students. They
are their kids. And I think trying to bring them to the table
and giving them the resources and capacity and the training to
develop their own tribal ed department so they can be full
partners, just like the state of Virginia can be a full partner
in the education of their students.
I think that is what I would do probably first and
foremost, because then you are talking about them being able
to--tribes being able to develop standards, curriculum, to be
able to align what is most important. If they have more than a
few schools in their--within their reservations, maybe they
make one a magnet school, a school for the arts or a STEM
school. It gives them the capacity to make those decisions on
their own.
And that is what I would do is try to say how can we try to
build tribal participation up, build their capacity, and then
move forward from there.
Mr. Russell. With the limited resources on construction and
seeing how it impacts everything, as a follow on, how would you
prioritize that?
Mr. Roessel. Well, I think the first priority has to be on
the safety--the critical safety areas and needs, is
prioritizing those. And right now the DFMC, Division of
Facility Construction and Management, have done just that. They
have a line item that is called ``facility improvement and
repair,'' and they are targeting those most critical elements
with that fund to try to make sure that, to the best extent
possible, our schools are safer.
Mr. Russell. Thank you for that.
And, Mr. Chairman, my last question.
Mr. Mendoza, can you specifically address how the GAO
shortcomings that were identified with regard to staff,
oversight, and data tracking are being fixed?
Mr. Mendoza. I appreciate the question and the opportunity
to speak to our role in trying to help the Bureau of Indian
Education address some of the findings from the General
Accountability Office report.
One of the key things has not only been to work with the
Bureau of Indian Education to begin to provide technical
assistance--we have not only worked directly with the BIE, in
terms of their capacity and trying to advise accordingly on the
formula programs that they manage; we had, prior to the
emphasis that has been represented under the secretary's
commitment to address these areas, we worked with our risk
management services, all of our program offices, and developed
a corrective action plan that is quarterly advanced in
relationship to any areas of concern.
In terms of technical assistance on a broader level, our
Office of State School Support, as it works with other states,
you know, began--is in the process now of looking at some key
areas of capacity for the Bureau of Indian Education as they
have communicated those needs.
On the school level, for the funded schools themselves, the
issue of facilities, certainly technology and technological
infrastructure, we have been able to partner with the BIE to
get more clarity around how they can use annual formula dollars
to be able to resource them and purpose them in ways that they
might not otherwise have understood. So this collective effort
is building that capacity that we are looking for and I think
is in response to many of the findings in the GAO report.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Polis?
Mr. Polis. Thank you.
Dr. Roessel, as has been acknowledged for many years,
Native American students have had some of the worst educational
outcomes in the country and many of the problems cited involve
schools and being plagued by bureaucracy and red tape.
As you know, charter schools are public schools that
provide flexibility from traditional rules and regulations that
govern and sometimes strangle both public or Bureau of Indian
Affairs schools. This type of flexibility allows charter
schools to focus curriculum in specific areas, like science or
math or Native American heritage.
In this case, it could allow Native American youth to learn
their own language and culture in school. How can the Bureau of
Indian Affairs encourage high-quality charter schools on
reservations and collaborate with national charter school
organizations?
Mr. Roessel. I think one of the first things is, as I
mentioned earlier, the Bureau of Indian Education, we directly
operate some schools--about 59 of them. The others are tribally
controlled schools, which we call, in one word, a grant school.
In many ways, if they were talking about charter schools
back in 1988, when the Tribally Controlled School Act was
passed, they may have called it a charter school. That--
Mr. Polis. So just a quick follow-up question: So they have
the type of autonomy where they choose their own staff, the
length of their school day, their curriculum--the type of
autonomy traditionally associated with the charter school?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, sir.
Mr. Polis. And go ahead, and so you are developing those
and encouraging that type of autonomy?
Mr. Roessel. I think we are encouraging that type of
autonomy, in addition bringing the tribes into it so that they
have that type of autonomy. And some tribes have come to us and
said, ``Can we provide--you know, get a charter management
company to come in and oversee our schools?'' And they have
that opportunity if they so choose.
So the Tribally Controlled School Act gives tribes and
schools a lot of autonomy to move forward and create those
curriculums and different approaches that they want.
Mr. Polis. And is there an active process that a tribe can
apply to--what is it called, what is the word you used, grant--
to become a grant school as opposed to be centrally run?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, there is.
Mr. Polis. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. Part of an initiative that we just had our
first year, and it is called the Sovereignty in Indian
Education Initiative, and that is really moving tribes in a
direction that they look at their school system in its
totality, so they focus on the H.R. aspect, the finance aspect,
governance, and academics, and they are able to be very
creative. And we have had some really good results for the
tribes. The interaction and collaboration between tribes has
been--
Mr. Polis. I also wanted to address the issue of LGBT
bullying in schools. As you know, there are many students that
are bullied simply because of their sexual orientation or
gender identity. I wanted to ask what the Bureau of Indian
Affairs is doing to prevent bullying against too-spirited or
LGBT students and discrimination in the Bureau of Indian
Affairs schools.
Mr. Roessel. That is something that I think we can do more
on. Within our system we--again, with this reorganization and
restructuring we are trying to identify those areas that we
have been lax in the past and what we can do as we move
forward.
Mr. Polis. Do you currently have an anti-bullying policy
that includes bullying based on sexual orientation or gender
identity?
Mr. Roessel. Yes, we do.
Mr. Polis. And so you will be working on some of the
enforcement of that and the modification of that.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs FY 2016 budget requests zero
funding for juvenile education. No other federal program exists
to assist at-risk Native youth who are adjudicated. How does
the BIA plan to address the educational shortfall facing the
most at-risk Native youth, including those who are juveniles in
custody?
Mr. Roessel. We fund--and one of the proposals moving
forward--and Mr. Mendoza can probably speak to this in greater
detail with Department of ED--but we have JDCs, juvenile
detention centers, that are within the BIE system, and we are--
have a partnership and a contract with education providers to
provide that education for them while they are in there.
One of the things that we are also looking to do and have
started this process is to actually share the data and
information. When a child might be in a detention center, they
may not come from that tribe where that detention center is;
they may be in a different one. So if we share our information
system we then can identify when there might be a child in a
detention center that is off the reservation or outside of the
area of a school.
So we are trying to focus on first identification of them
and making sure that we can follow them.
Mr. Polis. Thank you.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman for yielding back.
Mr. Curbelo, you are recognized.
Mr. Curbelo. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank
you and Chairman Rokita for your attention to this very
important issue, and of course, to the ranking members, as
well. We are clearly failing many of these children, and I
appreciate everyone looking for solutions.
I had a question for Mr. Mendoza with regards to the
structures that govern BIE. Department of Interior, in my view,
is a department that is focused on issues mostly foreign to
education, and perhaps there is a dissonance there between the
BIE's mission and the department's mission.
From your perspective, Mr. Mendoza, would it make sense for
an agency like the BIE to be housed under DOE instead of the
Department of Interior?
Mr. Mendoza. Thank you.
On the onset, this is something that has been discussed
with tribal leaders early on in the administration. They
wholeheartedly and without equivocation rejected the idea of
any such move of the BIE from the Department of Interior to
anywhere else, so I want to say that on the onset.
The question is how do we improve the delivery of services,
and irregardless of where we think that is situated within the
federal family, we not only have a responsibility to ensure
that our students--American Indian and Alaska Natives--whether
they attend bureau-funded schools, tribally controlled, or
public schools, are receiving a world-class education.
And I agree with Dr. Roessel, this is reflected in our
policies and how we jointly, the two agencies, worked to
address this issue, that tribal leaders are the missing piece
to what we are talking about in the governance structure of
schools right now. How can we begin to create a system where
educators are supported and tribal leaders are involved so that
there is a shared responsibility in the tribal context--
reservation lands and tribal communities? And then how are we
building that outwards?
There are exciting things happening right now in states
like Montana. Washington is on the cusp of that. We also have
North Dakota looking at, you know, the coordination of
essential understandings that makes it better for Native
students to navigate these systems, but also gets at the added
value of what they bring to the rest of our population in the
United States.
And so that is kind of the structure, and I think
governance is key to that, as you have already pointed out.
Mr. Curbelo. Well, I think we certainly should take into
account the view of the tribes on this issue, but I certainly
believe that at the very least DOE should be given a greater
role. I mean, for all our criticisms of DOE--Department of
Education--we recognize that it is the only federal department
almost exclusively dedicated to ensuring that children in this
country have access to a quality education.
So I certainly believe that at the very least it would make
sense to expand Department of Education's role in all of this.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentleman.
Mr. Jeffries, you are recognized.
Mr. Jeffries. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank the witnesses for their presence here today.
Mr. Mendoza, can you drill down for me on the comparison of
the performance of Native American students in BIE schools as
compared to the performance of students--Native American
students within the traditional public school system?
Mr. Mendoza. Certainly. Appreciate it.
We know that through the National Assessment for Education
Progress, that in terms of that survey and that information,
through the NAEP, that the gaps between American Indian and
Alaska Native students that attend public schools and Bureau of
Indian Education are certainly concerning. They are only
incrementally different than public schools. And as I pointed
out in my testimony, these are the worst indicators among many
ethnicities.
But, given that, we also see progress. And so the 4.7
percent gain in graduation rates for American Indian and Alaska
Native students overall in the adjusted cohort graduation rate
represents a jump from 65 percent to 69.7 percent.
We have also learned that early learning for Native
kindergarten students are held back at nearly twice the rate of
their white kindergarten peers. And then 22 percent of Alaska
Natives in the higher education realm age 25 and older have not
finished high school. And 39 percent of Native students who
enrolled in a 4-year institution in the fall of 2004 completed
a bachelor's degree by 2010, as compared to 62 percent of their
white students.
So these numbers on a national level are kind of our
baseline information for the state of Indian education.
Mr. Jeffries. Now, am I correct that on a given reservation
it could be the case that you have some Native children who
attend a BIE school and there may be others on that same
reservation who attend a traditional public school?
Mr. Mendoza. Could you repeat the question? Sorry, Mr.
Jeffries.
Mr. Jeffries. That there are some instances where on a
given reservation you could have some children who attend a BIE
school and others from that same reservation who may attend a
traditional public school.
Mr. Mendoza. Yes. Yes. The majority of students, as a
matter of fact, if not a vast majority. Many reservations 50
percent attend public schools; there are some 70 percent, 90
percent is actually the norm rather than the exception.
Mr. Jeffries. And in that circumstance, are there
perceptible differences on a reservation-by-reservation
standpoint? In other words, children on the same reservation
presumably subjected to some of the same socioeconomic
conditions or other factors that may impact an education--is
there a perceptible difference on a reservation basis as to how
those students might perform in a BIE school as compared to a
traditional public school?
And, Dr. Roessel, you could weigh in if you want to, as
well.
Mr. Mendoza. In general, it depends on the same kind of
measures that any urban or rural comparison or suburban rural--
you know, I come from a state like South Dakota and the
experiences in Montana, where Billings isn't the same as a
Denver, Colorado, and neither is a Rapid City the same as a
Minneapolis.
And so it comes down to teacher quality; comes down to
leader effectiveness; it comes down to adequate infrastructure
and resources. And so there may be differences, but where we
see those differences it usually amounts to one of those
factors being stronger in one area or worse in another.
There is high mobility among these students from those
urban to suburban to urban, and so we see that being a
challenge for these systems to not only track those students
but ensure that where they left off, that the next system picks
up on the experience of those students.
Mr. Jeffries. Dr. Roessel, I think that the suicide rate
amongst Native American teens is perhaps the highest of any
population group in the country. I think it is more than 2.5
the national average.
You know, what, if anything, is being done to address this
phenomenon specifically, and/or the underlying factors that may
lead to such an alarming rate?
Mr. Roessel. One of the primary factors, if you look at
suicide rates for young people, is identity--where they fit in
into the culture, into the community, into their traditional
culture or the Western culture. And I think one of the things
that I think BIE tribally controlled schools and BIE-funded
schools really focus well on is bringing in that tribal type of
education--talking about language, heritage, culture, history.
That helps identify. Research shows that if a student knows
who they are, they are less--they are going to be more
successful, they are less likely to have problems.
Chairman Kline. I am sorry, the gentleman's time has
expired.
Mr. Grothman?
Mr. Grothman. Thank you. A few questions.
First of all, on one of the sheets we have here I just
wanted to make sure this is right. They talk about per-student
funding for these schools, and they give us the last 4 years. I
think the year we are about to begin they are anticipating
$20,600 per child. Is that accurate?
Mr. Roessel. No. That is not accurate.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. What do you think the funding is per
child on one of these--
Mr. Roessel. I will use the GAO number, which said about
$15,000, but it--and they said it was higher. But I would--also
in the very next sentence they talk about the reasons why.
Our schools have to also have a water department. They have
to have a housing department. They have to have an EPA
inspector. They have all these other things that most schools
have within a municipality.
So in our case with BIE schools, you have a lot of other
needs because they are so remote. A lot of our schools predate
the public school system in these very remote areas.
And I think it comes back to Mr. Jeffries' question in
terms of one of the reasons why is that these are in very
remote locations where we have some of our schools, and so they
have to do a lot of other things than just educate.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. The numbers they give us here, they do
say $15,000 for Bureau of Indian Affairs, but then they say the
Department of Education is kicking in another $4,700. That is
how they get over this $20,000 number.
You know, some money coming in from Bureau of Indian
Affairs, some money coming in from Department of Education.
They say when you combine those they are well over $20,000. Is
that possibly true?
Mr. Roessel. Again, the part of the money is being used for
things other than just education.
Mr. Grothman. Okay.
Next question: You said a lot of the kids are attending the
public schools, but when you have a Bureau of Indian Affairs
school are they still covered by state laws as far as licensure
is concerned, mandated state tests, that sort of thing?
Mr. Roessel. Most of the process that we have within our
BIE is that we defer to the state from which the school
resides, so yes. In terms of the graduation, most of our
schools, because, as Mr. Mendoza mentioned, a lot of our
students go from one school to another, they have adopted
graduation requirements that are similar to the state so that
they are not falling behind if they were to transfer to another
school within their state.
Mr. Grothman. Okay. Now, I mean, I assume, you know, like I
said, we have this $20,000 figure, and they are saying about
$4,700 actually from Department of Education and $15,800 from
Bureau of Indian Affairs.
I realize a lot of these schools are very small in their
economies of scale, and I know smaller schools--but even then,
even, let's say, $5,000 is going for something else. That has
still got to be way over that national average per child.
Is there some breakdown as to where this money is going, or
the average amount spent per teacher per school, or is some of
the money getting stuck up in the Bureau of Indian Affairs
bureaucracy? How do you go through that much money? Still not--
Mr. Roessel. Well, again, I think, I mean, I will--just
look at the GAO report. They actually explain it that, again,
when I say we have a water treatment center, when I was a
superintendent of school I had to have my own water department.
We had to do testing to comply to EPA standards.
We had to have our own housing, so we had our own housing
maintenance people. You know, so you have all these other
things that a city would take care of if they had a school
district.
You don't have that in Indian country. They have to take
care of everything.
Mr. Grothman. Okay--
Mr. Roessel.--fire department was also something we had
to--
Mr. Grothman. Yes.
Mr. Roessel. Things like that.
Mr. Grothman. I will give you one final question. There
have been people trying to poke around as to why the test
scores aren't that good, and people never like to talk about
family and this.
But it seems to me that normally when I talk to my teachers
a lot of times the family has a big impact on how well the
children are doing. And, you know, we have been through a
situation in this country over the last 50 years in which the
number of children in nontraditional families has grown
through--because various federal programs encourage not raising
children in a traditional family.
Do you have statistics on the reservations or among these
kids the number of children who have, say, a mother and father
at home, rather than not a mother and father at home?
Mr. Roessel. I don't have statistics, but anecdotally, we
know that is happening and their--the families are large at the
homes, so they have grandparents and parents and aunts and
uncles. And so a child may not have their own room. So we know
that anecdotally.
Mr. Grothman. I don't understand. You say there are a lot
of children in traditional family or are not?
Mr. Roessel. I would say there are a lot that are not. They
are very young families, parents that are very young.
I know when I was superintendent the age of some of the
parent-teacher conference participants were very young; you
thought they were actually students sometimes. So you don't
have that foundation that you might have.
Mr. Grothman. Well, young--the young thing doesn't--
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
Ms. Bonamici?
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
Chairman Kline and Ranking Member Scott. This is an important
hearing, an important issue.
It is pretty clear that we have work to do both to improve
the Bureau of Indian Education schools as well as addressing
the educational outcomes for all American Indian and Alaska
Native students.
So Salem, Oregon, which is just south of the district I
represent, there is the Chemawa Indian School. It has been open
since 1880; it is the oldest continuously operating off-
reservation boarding school in the country.
It has struggled over the years with budget deficits, and
there appears to be a clear need for some improved federal
support and oversight.
And of course, Chemawa is not alone. There are too many, as
we heard already, Bureau of Indian Education schools that are
operating facilities that are in disrepair and need some work,
and also produce graduation rates and math and reading scores
that aren't what they need to be.
But we also need to discuss the educational outcomes and
the dropout rates that affect the more than 90 percent of
American Indian and Alaska Native students who are enrolled in
public schools. And I am glad we are talking--having that
conversation, as well.
Director Mendoza, you discuss in your testimony the STEP,
State Tribal Education Partnership program. In Oregon the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are
participating, the confederated tribes in the Pendleton School
District, and that partnership have yielded some promising
results. The state, the local education agency, and the tribal
education agency have collaborated on a new educator evaluation
system, and that places emphasis on the students' culture and
heritage.
Can you discuss the preliminary results of the STEP
program? Do we have information about student outcomes? How is
that program working?
And I do want to save time for a question for Dr. Roessel,
as well.
Mr. Mendoza. No, thank you for the question.
The STEP program, when we came here to Congress in, you
know, kind of the idea of it 2010, 2011, we were met with, you
know, how is this going to work? You know, not only was there
lack of faith and concern for whether or not tribes were ready
to do this or whether states were willing to do this or vise
versa.
STEP is now, coupled with the Sovereignty in Indian
Education Grant and the 2020 Grants that are on their way,
really calling that question.
Ms. Bonamici. How widespread is the use of the STEP
program?
Mr. Mendoza. Yes. So we have six tribes and four grants
represented through there. It is a small amount, but this is
how movements start. This is how tribal college and university
movement, but 40 years, you know, dramatically changed the
experience for Native education--
Ms. Bonamici. So you would say that is an effective
partnership?
Mr. Mendoza. It is effective. It is tremendously effective,
really popular. We just finished a webinar the other day that
talked about the application process for STEP. Over 80
participants were on the phone there.
The tribes are working with their state educational
agencies. State education agencies are building their
capacities simultaneous to tribal education agencies, and we
are getting to concrete outcomes--
Ms. Bonamici. Terrific.
Mr. Mendoza.--around what their--outlined in their
programs.
Ms. Bonamici. That is very encouraging.
Mr. Mendoza. And it is only in its third year of funding,
so we are really excited about this momentum.
Ms. Bonamici. Terrific. Thank you so much.
And, Dr. Roessel, I mentioned the Chemawa School in Oregon.
They currently have a superintendent but at times they have had
to operate without one. They have had challenges. It is just an
example of the challenges that the BIE schools face retaining
effective school leaders, and it is--I don't think that anyone
would disagree that effective school leadership is important.
So can you talk about strategies that have proved effective
at recruiting and retaining school leaders and educators to
work at the BIE schools? And if there are effective strategies,
can those be replicated? And what might be some of the barriers
that are preventing wider implementation of those successful
strategies?
Mr. Roessel. Thank you for that question. I think in terms
of Chemawa, we are very excited with the superintendent that is
there and the way she is turning that school around and really
working well with the students.
One of the challenges that we have in recruiting quality
staff, whether they are teachers or principals or
superintendents, is housing. Teacher housing is very difficult.
I know we hear stories all the time, and I have experienced
it myself, where we have hired a teacher. They drive out to the
school, they see their house, they never even unpack their U-
Haul. They just keep driving because it is just so deplorable.
So we need to try to repair those.
I think one of the things that we have done, in partnership
with ED, is the clarification that they have made for our
schools of money that can be used to help renovate some of the
houses that we have out in Indian country, so that is one of
the big things I think that will--it is a little thing but it
has a big impact if you can have a good teacher there as
opposed to starting school without a teacher.
And so I think the other thing, too, is that we need to--
with HUD we have a $10 million in the '16 budget to try to
build new teacher housing, also.
Ms. Bonamici. Thank you.
My time has expired. Thank you.
Chairman Kline. Gentlelady's time has expired.
Mr. Brat, you are recognized.
Mr. Brat. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you all for being with us today. I just have a couple
kind of big, 30,000-foot kind of questions. You are kind of in
a unique situation where you have the ability to envision your
future, and we want to help.
And so at the end of the day, our public school systems
face huge challenges with the vision problem. They want to pack
everything into the curriculum, right?
And so we want to do the skills stuff, the STEM stuff, the
fine arts get left behind a lot of times. We want to teach kids
about business. They graduate high school without even knowing
what a business is sometimes.
Parents have multiple objectives in their mind, right? They
want success in business, but they also want, you know,
reading, writing, and arithmetic skills inculcated.
And so just so we are on the same page, I mean, what is the
vision you have for these kids? At the end of the day, when
they graduate from high school, what do you want to see?
I mean, if you could have it, your dream, ideal education--
because you talked about your culture and history and all that.
I am hugely in favor of that. Without meaning and passion in
their life the kids don't even know why they are studying.
So at the end of the day, what is your vision for what you
want for these kids at the end of, say, high school?
Mr. Roessel. I think one thing is that they would be in a
position to make a decision and not have a decision made for
them, so that they can say, ``I want to go to college,'' or
maybe in some cases, like when I was at Rough Rock I had a
graduate who said, ``I want to become a medicine man. I want to
learn my grandfather's ways.'' That is just as successful. And
he was accepted to colleges.
So I think it is giving them the tools that they can make a
decision, and that is reflective of who they are, where they
come from.
Of course, it has to have reading and writing and math to
be successful today. But you have to know who you are.
And when you come from a tribal school, when you come from
a tribal community, when you talk about education you are
talking about nation-building. You are talking about
sovereignty.
So they come in and it is about survival. But when they
leave it is about identity. And so I think that is what I would
see as a vision for our BIE system or any system that deals
with Indian students.
Mr. Brat. Any difference or--
Mr. Mendoza. No. I think we share a lot of that in common,
and I think I would add--maybe Dr. Roessel is saying the same
thing--opportunity, making sure that they, in their foundation
of who they are, they know that that's been--it is certainly
absent, but throughout history has been, by no fault of their
own, and their parents, and others, torn from them, if not
purposefully targeted for elimination.
And so they need that in order to provide for a foundation
of these other areas that I know that they would want to seek
opportunities in math, language, science, you know, all of the
other fields that every other youth in this country aspire and
dream about, but they want to know who they are. And they know
that their family members have a lot to contribute to that, and
right now they are not--at least in--out beyond the tribal
colleges--or tribal--tribally controlled schools, they are not
seeing that in the systems that they navigate.
So they want to come back to their communities, just like
rural Bozeman, Montana, other places like that. And so they
want to see their communities thrive and grow in healthy ways.
Mr. Brat. Good. So that is how--and then, so the vision
thing is pretty standard. Most parents have said similar. I
just wanted to make sure. So that sounds like the standard
American dream kind of thing, getting the skills and being able
to make choices and being prepared.
And then up here, I mean, we used to have this thing called
the 10th Amendment to the Constitution--that is kind of an
inside joke--where we would--states and localities were
responsible for education. Now everything goes through D.C. and
it is ineffective.
So when you look at the structure, you are in a unique
place where you can kind of dictate a different kind of
structure if that is good for you. What do you see as the
structure you would favor if you could just start from scratch,
right? Have a tribe, local, state mandates, federal mandate--
what is getting in your way and what kind of structure would
you conceive of if you are just starting from scratch to get it
right?
Mr. Roessel. Well, I think the current structure within
BIE, I think there is the opportunity, through the tribal
grant--Tribally Controlled School Act, to allow--I don't think
it is for BIE to say, ``This is the structure,'' and I don't
think it is right for the Federal Government to say, ``This is
the structure.''
I think it is right for the tribe to say, ``This is the
structure I want,'' to create that outcome that we talked about
earlier, that vision. So I would assume it would look different
at different tribes, just like local control looks different
all across this country and how it is exercised.
But I do think that there has to be accountability, and I
think that is what tribes are looking at right now: How do we
ensure that we get that vision, that we don't just put money
into a school and we don't get where we want to go?
And so I think the structure is accountability, and I think
that is the word that we hear all throughout, you know, in
education. But tribes have not had that role in accountability.
Giving them that role in accountability, I think through the
STEP grant, through our Sovereignty in Education grant, gives
them that opportunity to build from there.
Chairman Kline. Gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Brat. Thank you, Chairman.
Chairman Kline. Mr. Grijalva?
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the
hearing.
Mr. Mendoza, if I may, in the initiative and in the process
of looking at Indian country and the first Americans in a
comprehensive way, one of--I--in my opinion, one of the most
glaring examples of historical neglect--is education. Whether
it is a traditional public school, a charter school, a for-
profit school, a tribally controlled school, there--the
statistics we are seeing about Indian education is not
particular to the 7 percent BIE schools. It is reflective of
the entire education outcomes for Native students.
Tell me about what the comprehensive need is to look at
this in the totality. Today we are dealing with one part, but
there is a totality here that we are not talking about, and it
is glaring, and it is not a good picture. So if you wouldn't
mind, in terms of the initiative, looking at it collectively.
Mr. Mendoza. Yes. Well, I--again, if I keep saying it over
and over it is because every time I step in front of Native
youth and elders and tribal leaders it is the first thing that
they say to us is that we not only lack a meaningful role in
the education of students, but it is not rooted in the
foundation of language, history and culture.
And whether the circumstance is on a reservation in Pine
Ridge, South Dakota, or an urban Native center such as the
secretary visited in Denver, Colorado, they wouldn't change it
for a world if it meant that it cost them their identity.
Whether it is strong or as fractionated as it can be, that
collective bond throughout history and how it is going to be
moving forward is that they need that in order to succeed in
the world around them. So they will hold on dearly to that.
Mr. Grijalva. Yes.
Mr. Mendoza. So as much as educators, much as decision-
makers such as ourselves can honestly say that needs to be a
starting point, that needs to be the case if we are going to be
able to address these challenges for these students.
Mr. Grijalva. I think it is part of the education. You said
it very well, that identity is critical to success.
And, you know, after decades upon decades of forced
assimilation with no other option and no retention of one's
culture or language, there's going to be outcomes and they are
not good. And I think we have to lay that premise on the table
in the discussion of Native education as a whole before we
start looking at parts.
If I may, Doctor, consultation and sovereignty.
Consultation as a mechanism for involvement of tribal
leadership in the decision-making role that they want, and the
issue of sovereignty in terms of being able to craft and design
what they think the curriculum should be for the students that
they represent.
Those, I think, are key, particularly consultation, as part
of the trust responsibility. Is that an effective--is that
being used effectively, in terms of how we bring tribal
leadership and tribes into the decision-making?
Mr. Roessel. I think it will be.
Mr. Grijalva. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. I think as we begin that process I think,
again, you can invite someone to the table, but if there is no
role for them, they are not going to know what to do. And so I
think right now what we are looking at is we are defining that
role.
We are looking at saying, okay, the tribe is there, ``What
do you want?'' The same question that was asked earlier: ``What
is your vision?''
Having that turn around, and with our Tribal Education
Department grant that was recently funded, that's going to
allow tribes the opportunity to ask that question: What do we
want? What is our vision for education within ourselves? And
then what do we need to do to get there?
And so I think one of the things that BIE is doing is
moving away from a direct provider of education and to a school
improvement agency so we support the tribes, we no longer
dictate to them. And that is where we are going with our
reforms.
Mr. Grijalva. I think the joint memorandum between ED and
Interior is a good starting point because I think it provides a
way to look at this comprehensively, as Mr. Mendoza indicated,
and make--have some roots to what is being done.
The last question, just because it is about resources--
little magic too--you have got to--resources are needed. You
mentioned creating a plan for school construction based on the
Department of Defense, since it is--which the Defense
Department has done successfully.
Could you speak to the different funding levels between the
Department of Defense and Interior with regard to education,
facilities, school construction, et cetera?
Chairman Kline. Unfortunately, you will have to answer that
for the record. The gentleman's time has--
Mr. Grijalva. It was a good question.
Chairman Kline.--they are all good questions.
Mr. Rokita, you are recognized.
Mr. Rokita. I thank the Chairman. I thank you for holding
this important full committee hearing that is a follow up to
the hearing our subcommittee had 2 weeks ago on this. These are
important issues. We are getting to the heart of it now.
I want to start by thanking my friend, Mr. Roessel, for
appearing before this committee this morning. In March together
we toured two BIE schools on the Fort Apache Reservation in
Arizona, and I certainly learned a lot.
I want to thank you for your service. And I don't say that
to other directors, necessarily, that sit in your chair, but
the fact of the matter is the BIE has named 33 directors in the
past 36 years, and you are one of the longest-staying
directors.
I can tell that there is passion in your work and you care
about what is happening and what you are doing, so I will
encourage you to continue that. We need your leadership.
Mr. Roessel. Thank you.
Mr. Rokita. Some of that 33 in 36 years might--may be
because of the restructuring that has taken place a number of
times at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and I want to know your
opinion, Mr. Roessel, how those--if those restructurings
improved or hurt the school system in the delivery of services,
and how--your testimony accounts for a lot of restructuring
that you want to do in the BIE--how is yours going to be
different?
Mr. Roessel. Well, I came into this position with a lot of
these reorganizations kind of piled on top of each other.
Mr. Rokita. Yes.
Mr. Roessel. I think when we started our reform effort we
really tried to get to the root of it and not do another
cafeteria-style reform, where let's just pull some more and put
it on our tray. Try to get to the root cause. The root cause
is, one, our buildings are falling down, and our instruction
needs to be improved.
So starting from those two points, I think we have really
tried to address how we make that change. If everything is
targeted in that classroom, I think we have a better chance
up--of finding our success, and that is what we really try to
do. How do we support the teacher, get new teachers, and
improve--
Mr. Rokita. So the previous restructurings, as obvious as
it sounds, what you are saying, the previous restructurings
didn't have that focus?
I will take that as a no.
Mr. Roessel. I don't think it had--I don't think it--again,
I think it piled things on. It didn't clarify the roles; it
added roles. And I think when you add more duties to people it
made it muddier.
Mr. Rokita. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. And I will say that, and I think we are trying
to clarify and clear it up, things that have happened over the
last--you know, I mean, just look at our success of BIE. We
have not had success. And so when an organization has not had
success, sometimes you wait for that perfect plan--
Mr. Rokita. And it never comes.
Mr. Roessel.--and we can't afford that. Our kids deserve
better.
And so this plan that we have right now I think addresses
the fundamental issues, and that is instruction and improving
it in the classrooms.
Mr. Rokita. And if asked, you will stay to carry out that
plan.
Mr. Roessel. Yes.
Mr. Rokita. Thank you.
During our time together in Arizona and my subsequent
visits to other schools in other states, it became clear that
there are a variety of approaches to running the schools and
addressing the issues that arise. What technical assistance
does the BIE provide to support the tribes that are struggling
to adequately serve their students, and what is the current
process, if even one exists, for sharing best practices amongst
the different schools?
Mr. Roessel. I think within our reform and creating the
education resource centers, that will provide us the
opportunity to have schools--not just a single school, but a
group of schools to collaborate. So many of our schools are so
small that it--we only have one teacher per grade level. So if
you had a professional development on reading skills or
decoding, you would only have one teacher working together.
So what we are trying to do is bring a collaborative
impact, so get schools together that can work together so you
have three or four or five or more third grade teachers that
are focused on learning.
So I think one of the things is that--is really trying to
provide that support to the school, to the tribes, to the
teachers in a way that we haven't done in the past.
Mr. Rokita. Do you share best practices?
Mr. Roessel. Yes.
Mr. Rokita. And you are the facilitator of that?
Mr. Roessel. We would--that is what we want within our
education resource centers.
The other thing we are doing is we have really upgraded our
communication outreach. We are providing links and an avenue
for our teachers to talk amongst each other and with each
other.
It hasn't been like that in the past. One school wouldn't
know what another school was doing.
Mr. Rokita. Yes.
Mr. Roessel. Now we are trying to build those links.
Mr. Rokita. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, my time is about to expire so I will yield
back. First time in history.
Chairman Kline. I thank the gentleman.
Ms. Adams, you are recognized.
Ms. Adams. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Ranking Member, thank you, as well.
And thank you, gentlemen, for your testimony.
Poverty is a challenge facing a large number of American
Indian and Alaskan Native students, which affects about one-
third of students in that group. And studies have shown that
poverty has a direct impact on a child's readiness on their
ability to learn and the likelihood of dropping out.
I understand, Mr. Mendoza, that the Department of Interior
has initiatives to address the dire conditions of schools, but
what, if any, initiatives are underway to address the poverty
rates among these youngsters?
Mr. Mendoza. Appreciate the opportunity to expand on some
of that.
I think one of the priorities for the administration in
this area is certainly early learning, and through our
preschool development grants in looking at how we can provide
access, the President's budget request does allow for the
Bureau of Indian Education and tribes to have access to those
important grants. That is a foundation that, you know, $7 on--
return on investment on every dollar, and we know how critical
that is for early learners as a whole, and especially in Indian
country, where there is such a challenge on that early start,
that is an important piece for us.
The other areas that we have been focusing on is not only
the formula dollars that go to provide for the unique academic
and cultural needs for Native students through Title VII, but
also addressing teacher leader corps through our professional
development grants. These dollars get at that instructional gap
that is the point of Director Roessel's comments around the
shortages that they face.
We have over 900 teachers that have been a part of that
program since its development. Over half of these teachers are
in the process of payback, in terms of the work side of it, and
so continuing to strengthen these programs is essential. Many
of them are grow-your-own programs from tribal colleges and
universities.
In our Native Youth Community Projects we are providing for
comprehensive ways that both tribes, state educational
agencies, institutions of higher education can provide for a
diverse array of comprehensive strategies in school or out of
school to be able to address in a community-based approach
these kinds of multitude of issues.
So through the development of a needs assessment, you know,
designing those strategies could be diverse--could be
addressing counseling, could be addressing early learning,
could be addressing Native language revitalization and
preservation. So these are some of the mechanisms that we call
upon.
Ms. Adams. Okay. Thank you.
Dr. Roessel, given that the education standards set for BIE
schools are set by the Department of ED, can you speak to the
level of coordination that takes place between the Bureau of
Indian Education and the Department to ensure that these
programs are administered effectively?
Mr. Roessel. I think one of the things that we have had as
a goal as we started this reform effort is how do we try to
increase that coordination and collaboration with all entities,
and in particular, the Department of ED. In our proposed
reorganization, the senior management of our Department of ED
funding, that team that oversees special ed, that team that
oversees Title I, will be moving back to D.C. from currently
Albuquerque to continue that coordination and to be closer to
where they need to be in order to have that collaboration with
the Department of ED.
So it has been a foundation as we move forward to make sure
that we continue that collaboration, you know, either at the
D.C. level and also out in the field. So that same staff now
will be closer to our schools also in our realignment. So we
are trying to ensure that we keep that coordination not just at
the upper levels, but also down at the school level where it
really makes a difference.
Ms. Adams. Thank you, gentlemen.
Mr. Chair, I yield back.
Chairman Kline. Thank the gentlelady.
Mr. Allen?
Mr. Allen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I am proud to say that my grandmother on my dad's side
was a descendant of the Cherokee Nation, and of course she
was--played a critical role in my dad's life. My dad was the
first in his family to attend college and graduate with a
degree, and he told me often what she meant to him.
Unfortunately, I never knew her because she passed away
before I was born. But I am proud to have that heritage.
Certainly, you know, I have looked at some statistics as
far as the unemployment rate. For members of the American
Indian community it is about double what it is nationwide, and
obviously the reason--at least I learned at an early age that
we wanted to get an education was so we could get a good job.
And I have had the privilege of providing folks, through my
business career, with jobs.
So, you know, what we are trying to find out here is how we
can change what is going on, and, you know, one of the
criticisms I guess is who is actually in charge here? In other
words, if you could walk me through the organization of the
Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and
the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Management and how their
responsibilities either overlap or how they work together, and
like I said, who is in charge and who do we need to look to as
far as accountability.
Dr. Roessel?
Mr. Roessel. Okay. Within Indian Affairs you have the
assistant secretary and then you have the deputy assistant
secretary for management. They oversee the--we call him DAS-M--
oversees the contracting, facilities, and different areas like
that at a higher level, and then you have the BIE and Bureau of
Indian Education, and we take care of just the educational
portion.
Currently, for any of the contracting or facilities or
I.T., we do not have that under my jurisdiction right now. But
in our proposal, in our restructuring and realignment with the
Secretarial Order 3334, those areas will fall under BIE, so we
will have the ability to have our own people talk and be able
to build budgets for facilities, build budgets and implement
I.T. at the school level so that teachers have the resources
they need, as well as our information system that with
contracting we will now have the ability to ensure that
textbooks are in the classroom on the first day of school.
H.R. will also be a part of--with this new reorganization--
will come under us. So we will ensure that teachers are in the
classroom on the first day of school and not on the last day of
school. So--
Mr. Allen. So we are addressing--
Mr. Roessel. We are addressing--
Mr. Allen. Okay. Is there a timetable on this--on trying to
accomplish in--so we can look to someone for real
accountability in this?
Mr. Roessel. The Secretarial Order 3334 has a timetable of
being implemented by September 30th of this year.
Mr. Allen. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. We want--I want it to be done earlier so we
can be ready for school year. Will it be fully implemented by
the beginning of this school year? No. But I think parts can be
and we can then start achieving the outcomes that we think we
need in those areas that we no longer--or we don't have control
over right now.
Mr. Allen. Well, thank you. And let us know how we can help
you accelerate that, because obviously we need to do that.
You talked about the state of the facilities being
dilapidated and whatnot, and the President requested $1 billion
in his budget for the Native American education, pretty much
for facilities. And then in past funding requests there was not
funding provided in the President's budget for school
construction. Can you tell me why we are, you know, why we are
at this point and exactly why we haven't looked at this before?
Mr. Roessel. I was not here for the previous budgets, but I
think right now a big part of the focus is, you know, we are
where we are and how are we going to get out of it? And I think
that has been the big focus that we have had.
Secretary Jewell has had laser focus and commitment to try
to improve education outcomes for Indian students, and the
President has supported that. And I think right now what we are
looking at is how do we try to build out of that.
I think we are looking at that with the 2016 budget,
finally complete that 2004 list, so we are looking forward, in
addition, expanding the ability to provide new facilities by
component or total school. So I think we are looking at trying
to create a plan forward, and that is the focus now.
Mr. Allen. Okay. Well, thank you, Doctor.
My time is up. I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Kline. I thank the gentleman.
Everyone has had a chance to ask questions, but we have had
some requests for a little follow up. I know that Mr. Grijalva
asked a question and I cut him off, so we are going, without
objection, we are going to--I am going to recognize Mr.
Grijalva for a couple of minutes to get that. Mr. Grothman had
a follow-up question, and Mr. Rokita did.
So I would think this whole thing will only last 6 or 7
minutes, but I want to give them a chance because they will
plague me if we don't do this. So without objection, that is
what we will do.
And, Mr. Grijalva, you are recognized to repeat briefly
your question so they have time to answer.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you very much and, Mr. Chairman, thank
you for the courtesy. Appreciate it.
I was talking about a helpful comparison to make. Since the
Federal Government really operates two school districts, BIE
and the Department of Defense, the helpful comparison I was
looking for is comparing the amount of money allocated or used
for school constructions at Department of Defense and the
Bureau of Indian Education.
Doctor or Mr. Mendoza, whomever.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Roessel. What we have tried to do--is take those
lessons learned from Department of Defense and transfer them
over to our approach with facilities. The former director of
Department of Defense is on our team, and we are in the process
of helping--or she is in the process of helping us develop a
long-term strategic plan much like they instituted at
Department of Defense.
I do not know how much money they got at Department of
Defense. I do know, and we do know, and everyone knows $1.3
billion is what has been identified to fix this problem. That
is not going to come overnight. We know it is going to have to
be a plan in the future and it is going to have to be a joint
effort by the administration and Congress as we move forward.
But we are hopeful to provide a plan to everybody so that
we know exactly where we are going and when we expect to get
there, and that is the completion and the updating of all our
school buildings.
Mr. Mendoza. I think I would just add that there are two
completely different contexts as well, and I think that is
important. There was a previous kind of point that I felt like
I wanted to make around this that, you know, work in Indian
country, infrastructure in Indian country is expensive. You
know, you get 100 percent, 150 percent increase for crossing
reservation boundaries because of the capacity there.
So in addition to the multitude of challenges that Director
Roessel pointed out, it is not only a different context but a
different history as well. And so the growth of those systems,
the changes, the fragmented kind of ways that Dr. Roessel
pointed to in trying to address those challenges is a part of
the reality of what Director Roessel is currently trying to
unravel, and the secretary is trying to play an appropriate
role in that from the standpoint of ESEA and other resources
around the administration.
Chairman Kline. Thank you. The gentleman's extra time has
expired.
Mr. Grothman, you are recognized for a couple minutes.
Mr. Grothman. Yes. Just a follow up on my past questions:
First of all, again, it says here total per-student funding of
$20,500 broken down $15,000-plus from BIE, another $4,700 from
the Department of Education. A lot of public schools that I am
familiar with pay for their own sewer and water if they are in
the country, so that is not an unusual thing or particularly
expensive things.
Could you elaborate on these high costs and maybe
eventually get this committee maybe the finance statements from
some of those Bureau of Indian Affairs so we can get a handle
on how you can spend over $20,000 a child and not have enough
to repair the roof. See what I am saying? Because most of the
schools that I am from, $11,000, $11,500.
I realize you don't have that great attendance so there are
economies of scale, but could you elaborate on it again and
maybe afterwards get this committee just, boom, pick out some
of the BIE--the bigger BIE schools here and say, ``This is the
money we are getting in; this is where it is going,'' so we
know where the money is going. Because for over $20,000 a child
there shouldn't be a financial problem.
Mr. Roessel. I will be happy to do that.
Mr. Grothman. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. I dispute the total number.
Mr. Grothman. Okay.
Mr. Roessel. I think it is very easy to add all the numbers
up and then divide by the number of students, but that is not
really a comparable rate because you also have--each of those
tribally controlled schools have their own administration that
is a portion of that, so you are lumping in a lot of money.
One of the things is, again, as we look at our school
system our transportation cost is much higher. Many of our
schools are on dirt roads. The turnaround on buses, the ability
to keep them, you know, operating, as some of your colleagues
when they visited Little Singer School know all too well, the
dirt roads. That has a huge impact on the turnaround.
The gas, as Mr. Mendoza mentioned, in terms of the oil and
the boilers and things like that--a lot of these are old
systems so the cost to keep them up is very high. So you have
people that--like the school I was at we had a boiler operator,
you know, somebody that knew things, and he really worked with
just, you know, bailing wire and duct tape on an old system. So
you had these things breaking down all the time. They have to
spend money on those items.
So I think, you know, when you look at transportation
costs, when you look at, you know, sewer, when you look at a
fire department--the school I was at, I had my own fire
department, so a fire truck and the upkeep and all of these
things that came with it. Those are things that most schools do
not have. They are separate.
And I think, you know, it is very easy to make the general
statement, but I think if you start looking at the remoteness
of the schools, the quality of the school buildings, looking at
what they have to provide, you know, the--we had our own
security--expanded security office because we were so remote.
These different areas I think you look at, and that brings
that number down considerably--
Chairman Kline. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. Rokita, you are recognized for a couple minutes for
your follow up.
Mr. Rokita. Again, I thank the Chairman.
I didn't get a chance to ask Mr. Mendoza any questions. I
would like to now.
Mr. Mendoza, you are familiar with the Johnson-O'Malley
programs, right?
Mr. Mendoza. Yes.
Mr. Rokita. Education has been the primary user of those
programs, where Native American children who go to public
schools, those schools can get reimbursed for some of those
expenses, and also parents of those students have a larger
voice than perhaps usual in that public school.
It has taken 20 years to get an accurate head count. Are
you satisfied with that, as a representative of the
administration? And what can you do to fix it quickly?
Mr. Mendoza. Well, I think the more appropriate person to
answer this question would be Dr. Roessel, since Department of
Interior administers the Johnson-O'Malley program. I think from
the effect that it has on public education, we have a deep
interest in the comprehensive nature that I outlined within my
testimony and through some of the question and answer today on
not only the health but the vitality of the Johnson-O'Malley
programs, because they target public school students, and so--
Mr. Rokita. Thank you. I can probably get to Dr. Roessel
quicker than I can to you, so let me take the last minute and
ask a follow up there.
When you met with the tribal leaders about moving BIE out
of Interior, did you also talk about moving Johnson-O'Malley
out of Interior to Education and is there an opinion there? And
what is the administration's opinion on that--on such a move?
Mr. Mendoza. I would say that was a--that was not an
explicit part of the conversations that I recall early on, but
that they assumed that would be a part of it. And so their
protection of not only the trust responsibility that Department
of Interior currently holds for that and any extension of that
to the Department of Education was one that they wanted to see
action and, more importantly, results.
And so whether it is Johnson-O'Malley, whether it is Title
VII, the tribal leaders want to see more meaningful involvement
and how they could have a stronger role in the education of
their citizens and the state citizens, as well. We cannot
forget that these are state--are citizens of their states, and
so in that sense there is a shared responsibility for these
students.
Chairman Kline. Thank you very much.
We have now had every one of my colleagues has a chance or
maybe a chance-plus, so we are about to close the hearing, but
I would like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mr. Scott, for any
closing comments that he may have.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, we are just looking at some data we have. It
looks like the Department of Defense is getting significantly
more money to build their schools in spite of the fact that it
apparently costs more to build them on reservations. That is
not complete, but we will get the exact figures.
It is obvious, Mr. Chair, that the Bureau of Indian
Education is making progress, but the status quo is not
satisfactory. We need to follow up with the budget requests to
make sure that the agency is getting sufficient resources, but
we also have to follow up with the Department of Education to
make sure that the 93 percent of American Indian and Alaskan
Native students get the quality education they deserve;
approximately 93 percent are in public schools, and there is a
huge achievement gap there that needs to be addressed.
So I appreciate you holding the hearing and I yield back.
Chairman Kline. I thank the gentleman.
I thank the witnesses. It really was a terrific panel, as
we had anticipated.
This has been a knotty problem for a long time. I think
that we all recognize that.
I was just looking here at the Snyder Act, 1921, where the
Bureau of Indian Affairs is directed to do a number of things--
spend money, and direct, supervise, and for all sorts of
things, including general support and civilization, including
education. So the federal government's tasks have been around
for a long time, and it gets complicated sometimes by
individual treaties and other legislation and so forth.
But the bottom--at the end of this process we still have
children going to schools that are not even safe. And so we do
need to get to the bottom, and the questions a number of my
colleagues--to you particularly, Dr. Roessel, you are the 33rd
in 36 years, director, and there have been gosh knows how many
reorganization plans. You talked about them stacking up and
adding more responsibilities.
It sounds in your testimony like you are really, really
trying to clean that up and get a plan that will work, a plan
for a structure and moving the responsibility for construction
into the BIE instead of somewhere over here. And so that leads
to the question that Mr. Allen had, well, who is in charge?
Again, not to blame. We are all to blame in some degree.
But what are we going to do about it?
And so we are very, very anxious that your new organization
succeed and that your plan succeed. And then the plan, when you
are fully responsible here, to address the deplorable
conditions in these schools--literally falling-apart schools--
well, that plan can't just be something that sits around since
2004 and nobody knows how to execute it or get it done. In the
meantime, you had whole classes--whole classes have gone
through school--certainly through high school--in northern
Minnesota shivering.
So we will be looking forward to a successful
reorganization and to seeing the plan to address these schools
as soon as you can get it.
And, Mr. Mendoza, thank you very much. It is good to have a
representative from Department of Education.
We get a lot of chance to talk with the Department of
Education. Not so much with the BIA and BIE. But we clearly
have an education problem here and we, I think in a very
bipartisan way, are determined to get to the bottom of it.
So thank you very much. I appreciate your presence here
today and your forthright answers to the questions.
There being no further business, committee stands
adjourned.
[Questions submitted for the record and their responses
follow:]
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[Responses to questions submitted for the record follow:]
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[Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]
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