Tribes doubt education efforts

BOISE – State education officials are trying to reassure American Indian tribes that Idaho is making progress to close the achievement gap between Indian children and public school students overall.

Despite results from various tests indicating the disparity is narrowing, the chairwoman of southeastern Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribes lashed out at the state for failing to adequately finance schools and teachers or pay attention to tribal concerns.

“What are we going to do about it?” Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Chairwoman Nancy Murillo asked the Idaho Council on Indian Affairs on Thursday. “We Indian people are here trying to get this done. But it’s got to require the state to get their heads out of the sand.”

Murillo, Sam Penney of the Nez Perce Tribe and others complained that teacher salaries are too low, and inadequate school budgets force teachers to buy their own classroom supplies. The leaders also criticized the state for failing to have an Indian representative on its Board of Education.

Tom Farley of the state Department of Education emphasized initiatives the state has launched to help improve performance in lagging schools.

He said the department was developing Indian education teacher standards to provide training in diversity and culture.

“We have to do better educating all children, not just some of them,” Farley said. However, the tribal leaders remained concerned about test scores.

The Idaho Standards Achievement Test showed Indian children performing at 12 to 22 percentage points below the overall student population.

Penney said the power struggle between the State Board of Education and State Schools Superintendent Marilyn Howard over the past two years has created confusion over who is in control of specific education issues.

He also argued that the state has failed to provide enough money for school districts, including those with heavy Indian enrollment, to fulfill testing responsibilities.

“If you’re going to mandate something, you have to provide the money,” Penney said. “I don’t think we can say, ‘School district, you do it.’ “

Lance Giles, an adviser to Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and his representative on the 10-member council, said the discussion with the tribes will help the governor understand the different issues that each faces as he develops education policy.