"Indian-education advocates know better than to get excited when legislators recommend spending more money to teach Montana students about Indian history and culture.

We've been down this road before. The lawmakers always veer off track and wind up with appropriating not enough money � or none at all � even though the road is paved with good intentions.

But a committee action Tuesday provides reason to be encouraged, if not excited.

The Quality Schools Interim Committee, a bipartisan group of eight legislative leaders that's met a dozen times since the regular session wrapped up in April, recommended pumping $10 million more into the Indian Education for All Act.

That six-year-old law sought to implement the long-ignored Indian-ed mandate in the 1972 state Constitution. It was never funded until the session earlier this year allocated a total of $4.4 million for curriculum development and training."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Panel's Indian-ed plan is step in right direction (The Great Falls Tribune 10/14)

Relevant Links:
Montana Indian Education Association - http://www.mtiea.org
Montana Office of Public Instruction - http://www.opi.state.mt.us

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