IMPROVING AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND
STRENGTHENING TRIBAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
The White House
Office of the Press
Secretary
For Immediate Release
December 02, 2011
EXECUTIVE ORDER IMPROVING
AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND STRENGTHENING
TRIBAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
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.
(2) In order to help
expand educational opportunities and improve education outcomes for AI/AN
students, the Initiative shall promote, encourage, and undertake efforts,
consistent with applicable law, to meet the following objectives:
(i)
increasing the number and percentage of AI/AN children who enter kindergarten
ready for success through improved access to high quality early learning
programs and services, including Native language immersion programs, that
encourage the learning and development of AI/AN children from birth through age
five;
(ii) supporting
the expanded implementation of education reform strategies that have shown
evidence of success in enabling AI/AN students to acquire a rigorous and
well-rounded education and increasing their access to the support services that
prepare them for college, careers, and civic involvement;
(iii) increasing the
number and percentage of AI/AN students who have access to excellent teachers
and school leaders, including effective science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM), language, and special education teachers, in part by
supporting efforts to improve the recruitment, development, and retention of
effective AI/AN teachers and other effective teachers and school leaders,
particularly through TCUs;
(iv) reducing
the AI/AN student dropout rate and helping a greater number and percentage of
those students who stay in high school to be ready for college and careers by
the time of their graduation and college completion, in part by promoting a
positive school climate and supporting successful and innovative dropout
prevention and recovery strategies that better engage AI/AN youths in their
learning and help them catch up academically;
(v)
providing pathways that enable those who have dropped out to reenter educational
or training programs and acquire degrees, certificates, or industry recognized
credentials and obtain quality jobs, and expanding access to high quality
education programs leading to career advancement, especially in the STEM fields,
by supporting adult, career, and technical education;
(vi) increasing
college access and completion for AI/AN students through strategies to
strengthen the capacity of postsecondary institutions, particularly TCUs; and
(vii) helping to
ensure that the unique cultural, educational, and language needs of AI/AN
students are met.
(3) To facilitate a
new partnership between the Department of Education and the Department of the
Interior, to improve AI/AN education, the Executive Director shall work with the
BIE Director and develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two
Departments that will take advantage of both Departments' expertise, resources,
and facilities. The MOU shall be completed within 120 days of the date of
this order. Among other things, the MOU shall address how the Departments
will collaborate in carrying out the policy set out in section 1 of this order.
(c) Funding and
Administrative Support. Subject to the availability of appropriations,
the Department of Education shall fund the Initiative, including NACIE.
The Department shall also provide administrative support for the Initiative to
the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.
(d) Interagency
Working Group. There is established the Interagency Working Group on
AI/AN education and TCUs, which shall be convened by the Initiative's Executive
Director. The Working Group shall consist of senior officials from the
Department of Education and the Department of the Interior and officials from
the Departments of Justice, Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, and
Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the White House Domestic Policy
Council, as well as such additional agencies and offices as the Secretaries of
Education and the Interior may designate. Senior officials shall be
designated by the heads of their respective agencies and offices. The
Secretaries of Education and the Interior shall serve as the co chairs of the
Interagency Working Group.
(e) Federal Agency
Plans. (1) Each agency designated by the co chairs as a member
of the Interagency Working Group shall develop and implement a two part, 4 year
plan of the agency's efforts to fulfill the purposes of this order, with part
one of the plan focusing on all AI/AN students except for those attending TCUs,
and part two focusing on AI/AN students attending TCUs. Each agency plan
shall include:
(i) annual
performance indicators and appropriate measurable objectives with which the
agency will measure its success in meeting the goals of this order;
(ii) information
on how the agency intends to increase the capacity of educational agencies and
institutions, including our Nation's public schools and TCUs, to deliver
high-quality education and related social services to all AI/AN students; and
(iii) agency efforts
to enhance the ability of these educational agencies and institutions serving
AI/AN students to compete effectively for grants, contracts, cooperative
agreements, and other Federal resources with which to serve the education needs
of AI/AN students, and to encourage eligible schools and colleges serving those
students to apply for Federal grants and participate in Federal education
programs, as appropriate. Agency plans may also emphasize access to high
quality educational opportunities for AI/AN students, consistent with
requirements of the ESEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and
other applicable Federal education statutes; the preservation and revitalization
of tribal languages and cultural traditions; and innovative approaches to more
seamlessly align early learning, elementary, and secondary education programs
with the work of TCUs.
(2) Submission.
Each agency shall submit its plan to the Initiative by a deadline established by
the co chairs. In consultation with NACIE, the Initiative shall then
review agency plans and develop, for submission to the President, a synthesized
interagency plan to achieve the aims of this order.
(3) Annual
Performance Reports. Each agency shall submit to the Initiative an
Annual Performance Report that measures the agency's performance against the
objectives set forth in its plan. In consultation with NACIE, the
Initiative shall review and combine Annual Performance Reports from the various
agencies into one annual report, which shall be submitted to the Secretaries of
Education and the Interior for review.
(f) Private Sector.
In consultation with NACIE, and consistent with applicable law, the Interagency
Working Group, led by the Executive Director, shall encourage the private sector
to assist State- and locally-operated public schools that serve large numbers of
AI/AN students, including those attending our Nation's public schools, publicly
funded preschools, and TCUs, through increased use of such strategies as:
(1) Providing funds to
support the preservation and revitalization of Native languages and cultures;
(2) Providing funds to
support increased institutional endowments;
(3) Helping these
schools develop expertise in financial and facilities management, information
systems, and curricula; and
(4) Providing
resources for the hiring and training of effective teachers and administrators.
Sec. 4. Study.
In carrying out this order, the Secretaries of Education and the Interior shall
study and collect information on the education of AI/AN students.
Sec. 5. General
Provisions.
(a) NACIE shall serve as the Initiative's advisory committee.
(b) Insofar as the
Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.), may apply to the
Initiative, any functions of the President under that Act, except for those of
reporting to the Congress, shall be performed by the Secretary of Education, in
consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, in accordance with the
guidelines issued by the Administrator of General Services.
(c) This order revokes
Executive Order 13270 of July 3, 2002, Executive Order 13336 of April 30, 2004,
and section 1(n) of Executive Order 13585 of September 30, 2011.
(d) The heads of
agencies shall assist and provide such information to the Initiative as may be
necessary to carry out its functions, consistent with applicable law.
(e) Nothing in this
order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(1) authority granted
by law to an executive department, agency, or the head thereof; or
(2) functions of the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative proposals.
(f) This order is not
intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United
States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE
December
2, 2011.