Bureau of Indian Affairs confronts huge backlog in aging school system

Wednesday, July 24, 2019  

• WEBCAST: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Education Construction

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies will be examining the status of school construction in Indian Country at a hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

The situation isn't looking good for the federal government. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, there's a $639 million backlog in deferred maintenance for education facilities and a $86 million backlog in deferred maintenance for education quarters within the Bureau of Indian Education system.

"The BIE faces unique challenges in providing a high-quality education to Indian students attending the schools it funds," Jason Freihage, the Assistant Secretary for Management in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, states in his written testimony. "As the focus of the hearing shows, one of these challenges is improving the state of education facilities."

The testimony further confirms the sad state of Indian schools. According to Freihage, the overall condition of education facilities, based on the facility condition index standard, was .1026, which is considered "poor."

"An FCI rating for Poor condition begins at .1000," Freihage observes in the testimony.

For education quarters, the rating was worse: "The overall condition of education quarters based on FCI was .1405," Freihage states.

According to some government estimates, it will cost more than $4.6 billion to replace the schools and structures in the worst condition.

"Native students deserve to learn in safe and healthy classrooms where they can thrive," Diana Cournoyer, a citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, told the subcommittee in March when she was serving as interim executive director of the National Indian Education Association. She has since been hired on a permanent basis.

It’a a great day for the families of Pleasant Point. Since my earliest days on @AppropsDems, I’ve been advocating for full funding to rebuild the Beatrice Rafferty School. Today the Passamaquoddy tribe finally broke ground on a state-of-the-art, LEED certified elementary school! pic.twitter.com/n6gJLl3IhL

— Chellie Pingree (@chelliepingree) June 14, 2019

The process has been slow-moving, through Republican and Democratic administrations. According to Freihage's testimony, the BIA is finally "in sight" of replacing all 14 schools that were on a 2004 list of priority projects.

"To date, we completed projects for 11 of the 14 schools on the 2004 list," Freihage states.

That's not the only list, either. There's a 2016 list with 10 schools in need of replacement and only four of those projects are "fully funded" at this point, the testimony reads.

"We are always looking for new approaches to improve construction implementation," Freihage tells the subcommittee.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) is eager to hear more about those approaches. She chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, a leadership role she took on at the start of the 116th Congress in January.

“I’m looking forward to hearing from the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the status of the education construction funding allocated to Native American tribes,” McCollum said. “We need more information on the implementation of these projects, and particularly those experiencing delays, to understand how we can improve the process and ensure schools are built or improved in a timely manner. All children deserve safe, modernized, and welcoming facilities in which to learn.”

As chair of the panel, McCollum played a major role in securing additional funds for the BIA and the BIE in the "minibus" appropriations bill that cleared the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on June 25. The measure, H.R.3055, provides $387 million for Indian school construction, an increase of $149 million from current levels, and $318 million above the amount President Donald Trump sought in his fiscal year 2020 budget.

But the bill still has to be taken up in the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate and signed into law by Trump before the larger amounts can make their way to Indian Country.

The hearing takes place at 3pm in Room 2008 of the Rayburn House Office Building. It will be webcast by the subcommittee.

Freihage is the sole witness for the hearing.

Bureau of Indian Education, Education Construction (July 24, 2019)

House subcommittee schedules hearing on infrastructure in Indian Country (July 8, 2019)
House takes up legislation to increase funding to Indian Country (June 18, 2019)