Bureau of Indian Education
The Bureau of Indian Education is a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior under the assistant secretary for Indian affairs that directs and manages education functions. Formerly known as the Office of Indian Education Programs, it is headquartered in the Main Interior Building in Washington, D.C.
The BIE school system has 183 elementary and secondary schools and dormitories located on 64 reservations in 23 states, including seven off-reservation boarding schools, and 122 schools directly controlled by tribes and tribal school boards under contracts or grants with the BIE. The bureau also funds 66 residential programs for students at 52 boarding schools and at 14 dormitories housing those attending nearby tribal or public schools. It is one of two U.S. federal government school systems, along with the Department of Defense Education Activity.
In the area of post-secondary education, the BIE provides support to 29 tribal colleges and universities across the U.S. serving over 46,000 students. It directly operates two institutions of higher learning: Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Additionally, the BIE operates higher education scholarship programs for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Alden Woods of The Arizona Republic wrote in 2020 that the BIE is "an overlooked and often criticized agency".
History
Circa 1990 the Hopi tribe began the process of taking BIA schools in their territory into tribal control. They managed this under authorization provided by legislation in 1975, which allowed tribes to contract with the BIA/BIE to manage and operate their own schools.The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 was not the only legislation act that contributed to transforming the Bureau of Indian Education. Shortly after the 1975 legislation act, The Education Amendments Act of 1978 was put into motion and influenced radical changes that set the foundation for the B.I.E. The 1978 legislation act allowed for qualified teachers and staff members to be hired, ensured financial support for institutions that were directed by tribal influence, and established support for Indian school boards.
Prior to August 29, 2006, it was known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Indian Education Programs.
The reason the name "Office of Indian Education Programs" was changed to the "Bureau of Indian Education" was to establish the connection and shared mission that the BIE shares with other programs in the "Office of Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs."
Operations
The headquarters is in the Main Interior Building in Washington, DC.The federal government funds schools for Native Americans under the treaties it established for reservations and trust lands. In the early years, the government authorized religious missions to establish schools and churches on reservations. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Congress authorized the government to establish numerous Indian boarding schools for a more concerted program of assimilation of Native American children. These were established at both the elementary and high school levels.
As Indian reservations cannot levy taxes, local school taxes cannot be used to fund Native American schools.
Alden Woods of the Arizona Republic described the BIE as having the characteristics of both a state education agency and a school district, with its supervision and funding of tribally controlled/grant schools making it the former and its direct operation of BIE schools making it the latter. By the beginning of the 21st century, education expenses of the BIE represented 35% of the BIA budget. But studies since the 1969 Kennedy Report have shown that the schools have been underfunded. Despite the education responsibility, much of the BIA staff are specialists in land management rather than education.
Since the 1970s, school boards have been elected on reservations to oversee BIE schools, as in the Southwest United States.
In 2015 the BIE spent about $15,000 per student in the schools it operated, 56% above the per-student average cost for a public school student in the United States. The BIE schools were ranked as among the most costly to operate in the United States.
The predecessor agency OEIP had say only in operations related to instruction, while other BIA agencies had controlled other aspects, such as hiring and other employee issues, and construction and renovation of schools, and related infrastructure such as roads. Severns wrote that the various sources of authority made school accountability difficult.
A 2015 editorial of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune noted that schools in the BIE network were underfunded while schools in the Department of Defense Education Activity, the federal military dependent school network, were well funded.
Student body
the BIE-funded/grant/direct schools in total had 46,000 students, meaning they educated about 8% of the Native American students in the United States. Members of some tribes have moved to cities, and many states have increased coverage of reservation and tribal lands through their public school districts. about 90% of Native American students attended public schools operated by local school districts, rather than federally funded or operated schools.the BIE schools are located in many isolated areas with some of the lowest incomes in the United States. Maggie Severns of Politico wrote in 2015 that "Students often come from difficult backgrounds".
In 1978, 47,000 Native American K-12 students attended schools directly operated by the BIA, and 2,500 attended tribal schools and/or other schools that contracted with the BIA.
Employees
Circa 2015 the BIE had 4,500 employees. In November 2015 the BIE had 140 empty teaching slots. The agency had difficulty with teacher retention, especially as many schools are located in isolated areas. Today in the year 2025 during the month of February, the BIE experienced an even more severe decrease in the number of teachers and faculty members who are employees of the BIE. This is a result of president Trump's decision in making a reduction of staffing on a very large scale. President Trump's action has majorly affected institutions throughout the BIE. One example is Haskell University which has experienced a pause in financial aid distribution, more than thirty courses lacking teachers, and over all a quarter of staff being terminated. These are severe impacts that affect the quality of education that students attending native schools receive.Academic performance and reputation
BIA/BIE schools have been criticized for decades for poor academic performance, and for the failure to establish metrics that allow performance to be measured. In 1969 the graduation rate was about 59%. Circa 1970 the overall dropout rate of BIA schools was 100% higher than the U.S. dropout average. Citing this statistic, that year President of the United States Richard Nixon criticized BIA schools. The 1969 report by the Select Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate in 1969 also criticized BIA schools.Academic performance in BIE schools is not the only thing that has received criticism or questioning by the public. There have been major concerns regarding students' health and safety because of the poor quality of school facilities. A variety of different factors have contributed to this. Some of these factors include limited funding and poor management structures. School facilities with poor quality create an effect on important aspects such as students learning efficiency, the number of students who decide to attend, and the overall reputation of BIE schools.
In 1988 a Department of Interior report blamed all levels of leadership for substandard test scores. In 2001 the Government Accountability Office wrote "The academic achievement of many BIA students as measured by their performance on standardized tests and other measures is far below the performance of students in public schools. BIA students also score considerably below national averages on college admissions tests."Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama made attempts to improve BIE schools. Another attempt made to resolve the issue of poor academic performance in BIE schools, was the legislation act of 2001 titled "The No Child Left Behind Act" which put the new ruling into effect that says schools will be held responsible for making the effort to improve their students' academic performances. By doing so, students' will be able to better retain the information they are learning in school and their test scores will showcase notable improvement.
In 2015 Maggie Severns of Politico wrote that BIE students "have some of the lowest test scores and graduation rates in the country".
In the 2018–2019 school year, the percentage of BIE students passing their schools' standardized examinations was about 10% for mathematics and 15% for the English language. In 2011 BIE students scored better on examinations than students at Detroit Public Schools, but every other large urban school district outperformed students of BIE schools.
In 2015 the graduation rate was 53%. In the 2017–2018 school year, the graduation rate was 64%, but in 2018–2019 the graduation rate had declined to 59%. In 2015 the average United States graduation rate was 81%. The graduation rate for Native American and Alaska Native students enrolled at school district-operated public schools was 67%.
From circa 2017 to 2020, the BIE did not follow the terms of the Every Student Succeeds Act. As of 2020 the BIE does not have a consistent testing system for all schools, nor does it provide the public academic outcomes information that traditional public schools are required to publish under state laws.
Schools
BIE network schools are often located in rural, isolated areas where alternative options for schooling are not feasible. there were 180 schools in the BIE network.In 1987 the BIA supported 58 tribal schools and directly operated 17 boarding schools, 17 day schools, and 14 dormitories housing students enrolled in public schools operated by local school districts.
In comparison to the numbers recorded from the year 1987, throughout the 2020–2021 school year, the number of students that were enrolled in institutions that were funded by the BIE was 34,529. Out of those 34,529 enrolled students, 24,240 were enrolled in schools that were led by trial influence and 10,289 enrolled in schools that were controlled by the BIE.
In 2003, the state with the largest number of BIA-OIEP network schools was Arizona, and the state with the next highest number was New Mexico. Since 2003, Arizona and New Mexico remain the states with the largest number of BIE-funded students: 9,113 in Arizona and 7,439 in New Mexico.