Improving American Indian and Alaska Native Educational Opportunities, Legislation

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order as follows:

Section 1.  Policy.  The United States has a unique political and legal relationship with the federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes across the country, as set forth in the Constitution of the United States, treaties, Executive Orders, and court decisions.  For centuries, the Federal Government’s relationship with these tribes has been guided by a trust responsibility    a long standing commitment on the part of our Government to protect the unique rights and ensure the well-being of our Nation’s tribes, while respecting their tribal sovereignty.  In recognition of that special commitment    and in fulfillment of the solemn obligations it entails    Federal agencies must help improve educational opportunities provided to all AI/AN students, including students attending public schools in cities and in rural areas, students attending schools operated and funded by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and students attending postsecondary institutions including Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs).  This is an urgent need.  Recent studies show that AI/AN students are dropping out of school at an alarming rate, that our Nation has made little or no progress in closing the achievement gap between AI/AN students and their non-AI/AN student counterparts, and that many Native languages are on the verge of extinction.

It is the policy of my Administration to support activities that will strengthen the Nation by expanding educational opportunities and improving educational outcomes for all AI/AN students in order to fulfill our commitment to furthering tribal self-determination and to help ensure that AI/AN students have an opportunity to learn their Native languages and histories and receive complete and competitive educations that prepare them for college, careers, and productive and satisfying lives.

My Administration is also committed to improving educational opportunities for students attending TCUs.  TCUs maintain, preserve, and restore Native languages and cultural traditions; offer a high quality college education; provide career and technical education, job training, and other career building programs; and often serve as anchors in some of the country’s poorest and most remote areas.

Sec. 2.  Definitions.  (a)  “Agency” means any executive department or agency designated by the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of the Interior to participate in this order.

(b)  “Indian tribe” means an Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village, or community that the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges to exist as an Indian tribe pursuant to the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994, 25 U.S.C. 479a.

(c)  “American Indian and Alaska Native” means a member of an Indian tribe, as membership is defined by the tribe.

(d)  “Public school” means a Head Start center or a pre kindergarten, elementary, or secondary school that is predominantly funded by public means through the Federal Government, a State, a local educational agency, or an Indian tribal government, including a school operated directly by or through contract or grant with the BIE, an Indian tribe, or a State, county, or local government.

(e)  “Tribal Colleges and Universities” are those institutions that are chartered by their respective Indian tribes through the sovereign authority of the tribes or by the Federal Government, and defined in section 316 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1059c).

Sec. 3.  White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education.

(a)  Establishment.  There is hereby established the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education (Initiative).  The Secretary of Education and the Secretary of the Interior will co chair the Initiative.  The Secretary of Education shall appoint an Executive Director who shall be responsible for overseeing implementation of the Initiative.  This individual shall be a senior level, Department of Education official who shall serve as the Secretary of Education’s senior policy advisor on Federal policies affecting AI/AN education.

The Executive Director shall work closely with the BIE Director and shall provide periodic reports to the Secretaries of Education and the Interior regarding progress achieved under the Initiative.  The Executive Director shall coordinate frequent consultations with tribal officials and shall provide staff support for the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE), authorized by section 7141 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) (20 U.S.C. 7471).

(b)  Mission and Functions.  (1)  The Initiative shall help expand educational opportunities and improve educational outcomes for all AI/AN students, including opportunities to learn their Native languages, cultures, and histories and receive complete and competitive educations that prepare them for college, careers, and productive and satisfying lives, by:

(i)    working closely with the Executive Office of the President to help ensure AI/AN participation in the development and implementation of key Administration priorities;

(ii)   strengthening the relationship between the Department of Education, which has substantial expertise and resources to help improve Indian education, and the Department of the Interior and its BIE, which directly operates or provides grants to tribes to operate an extensive primary, secondary, and college level school system for AI/AN children and young adults;

(iii)  coordinating, in consultation with the Department of Education’s Director of Indian Education, programs administered by the Department of Education and other executive branch agencies regarding AI/AN education;

(iv)   serving as a liaison with other executive branch agencies on AI/AN issues and advising those agencies on how they might help to promote AI/AN educational opportunities;

(v)    reporting on the development, implementation, and coordination of education policy and programs that affect AI/AN students;

(vi)   furthering tribal sovereignty by supporting efforts, consistent with applicable law, to build the capacity of tribal educational agencies and TCUs to provide high quality education services to AI/AN children;

(vii)   developing in partnership with tribal educational agencies a more routine and streamlined process for entering into agreements for educational studies conducted on tribal lands;

(viii)  developing sufficient data resources to inform progress on Federal performance indicators, in close collaboration with the Department of Education’s National Center for Educational Statistics;

(ix)    encouraging and coordinating Federal partnerships with public, private, philanthropic, and nonprofit entities to help increase the readiness of AI/AN students for school, college, and careers, and to help increase the number and percentage of AI/AN students completing college; and

(x)     developing a national network of individuals, organizations, and communities to share best practices in AI/AN education and encouraging them to implement these practices.