When it comes to Race to the Top, most states have put on their Sunday best, bought new ties, and submitted their applications. Others refused or showed up in pajamas. Then there are those who didn’t even have the chance to participate. The Bureau of Indian Schools, which is administered under the Department of the Interior and which, of course, is not a state or even a “district” in the usual sense, was left out of the stimulus bill, both for ARRA funds and as a candidate for RTTT dollars. That will change if a new bill proposed by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) passes. Pointing out that RTTT is supposed to help the neediest kids (which surely includes many Native Americans), the bill proposes that 1 to 5 percent of RTTT funding be reserved for BIE schools. Just because. We understand that BIE schools deserve formula aid. We also understand why the BIE can’t realistically be part of the Race to the Top competition. (It would amount to one part of the executive branch trying to incentivize reform in another.) But lots of states won’t get RTTT funds (or so Arne Duncan has promised); we’re not sure why the BIE should be guaranteed such funding. (And what about Guam?)
“Bureau of Indian Education Schools Want In On Race to the Top,” by Alyson Klein, Education Week, January 21, 2010