Via North Dakota Tribal College System
Read the full, original reporting here: Federal cuts would be ‘death knell’ for North Dakota tribal colleges, campus presidents say
Educators are sounding the alarm after a 75% cut to federal tribal college funding was proposed. As North Dakota Monitor freelance journalist Ceilidh Kern puts it, “federal cuts would be [a] ‘death knell’ for North Dakota tribal colleges,” according to North Dakota tribal college presidents.
Kern broke down the local impact of the proposed $150 million national reduction in an interview with KSJB’s Payton Gall (stay tuned for the full interview). If the cut to funding is approved, Kern says days will be numbered for schools like United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, which relies on the federal government for 70% of their operating budget.
Kern says administrators would have to make immediate, drastic choices. “They’d have to begin preparing to close… These cuts would mark the end for these colleges that rely so much on federal funding to continue their operations.”
Tribal school advocates say the proposed cuts violate legal trust responsibilities, and that institutions have been historically underfunded. Kern reports that schools have been shortchanged by the federal government, despite being promised certain amounts of per-student funding per year.
Hear the full interview with Ceilidh Kern on Sunday, May 24th at 11 a.m. on KSJB Radio, 600 AM and 100.1 FM.
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